Smash X Extinction
by Ishida Sasuke
Summary: Third and last volume of the Smash X Series. The showdown is near, the truth is coming out, fate and free will struggle. Robert and Yoshi must lead the group to finally stop Tabuu and Palutena, however the sacrifice to do so is great, can they endure it?
1. Robert

**Smash X Series volume 3**

**Smash X Extinction**

_In the end, death will overcome us all, even god, and we all will be extinct. Until that day, I'll fight._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author Note: <strong>__The end of the story starts! And now Robert leads us to it with these 16 chapters! I sincerely hope you have enjoyed it this far and that we'll meet again on some other story, but right now, we have to get started on this last volume. Read, enjoy, review, and enjoy again!_

_Let's e go Robert!_

_Robert: ishida_sasuke only own his OC, and the story plot. The rest is Nintendo's, Sega's and Konami's... not that anyone cares at this point._

* * *

><p><strong>Robert<strong>

"Do you know who you are?"

"My name is Robert Jared Wolf, I'm 22 years old, and I'm a Judo teacher."

The woman that was in front of me frowned, she looked at me like I was a crazy person.

"We haven't made any progress." She said impatient "What year is it?"

"2014."

"Damn it!" she said finally losing it.

A folder hit the table in front of me. I was confined in four walls, in front of a shrink, sitting in a wooden chair. As the folder fell on the table some pages were discarded around the table, and many of them had dates that I have seen before; September 11th 2001, September 3rd 2003, August 15th 2005 and of course April 1st 2010, the date when Matthew became a shape shifter.

"Wake up! Look through the window and tell me what you see!"

"I don't have to look." I replied pissed "I'm not who you think you are."

"You can say that to yourself as many times as you want, but we both know the truth." The woman let a file in front of me "Your name is Matthew Alfred Stryder, you are 17 years old, it's the year 2010 and you've been exposed to a traumatic experience, so it's usual that you want to hold into a fantasy." She said.

"This is not a fantasy." I replied even more pissed "You are doing this to confuse me; it's an attempt to destroy me."

"Why would I want that?"

"Because you work for them?"

"Who?"

"Tabuu and Palutena."

"Matthew, do you have any idea of how that sounds?"

"My name is Robert!" I clarified "And despite how crazy it sounds, it's the truth and I'm going to hold into it."

The woman rubbed her curly hair a little bit and then she called someone by a free handed phone.

"Let's enter phase two."

When I woke up I was a little shocked. It was the third time in a row I had the same dream, with the same woman and the same setting. Whenever I woke up I was happy to see that I was at Matthew's place and that everything was like it used to be. It was October 16th 2014; two months have passed since Melanie disappeared in thin air and everyone was waiting for me to tell them what we had to do next. I myself didn't know what to do. The first week we took a break in order to restore power, and then we started searching for Melanie around the city. Sophie traveled around the whole country and she was about to start going abroad soon. She couldn't sense her or Palutena anywhere near, so she had to try somewhere else; she looked and mapped out zones in which there were supernatural activity that could be caused by Palutena, so she had already some points of destination, but she would finish looking on the country first. I knew it wasn't such a good idea, she was heavily pregnant, but she wouldn't listen, she wanted Melanie back no matter what. There was one only place she had left to look around this country and it was the Atacama Desert, after that she would leave the country in search for her daughter, no matter how close the baby might be to be born.

As for me, I felt more than useless. I trained four hours per day and I was still stuck on my current level of power, the final smash. I also tried to look out for the lost smashers, but there were no trace of them, Lucario was nowhere to be found and that scared me, what if he took over me again?

"Morning, Robert!"

Maquiel entered in the room and I didn't want to leave the bed. I covered myself in the blanks and I tried to come up with some kind of answer for the million of questions that she had in her mind like: what are we going to do next? Do you have any thoughts? Is this going to work out? Being a leader sucked.

"Don't be a slacker!" she complained "We have training to do, or are you scared to fight me?"

Ever since the battle ended, I asked Maquiel to help me training in order to develop Yoshi's final form, but there was no break through yet. And I could understand it; it took Maquiel around four years. She and Matthew had the same way to describe the final form: Handing your powers to your smasher, yet I was a bit scared to hand Yoshi my aura powers when I feared for Lucario to come back.

Maquiel removed the blankets and I got up while yawning. It was too early on the morning, as usual, most of the guys were still sleeping while we trained. Maquiel and I used to fight a good while on human form and then we shape shifted. She said that my body needed to be as strong as possible in order to withstand the power drain produced by the final smash. We used to train on the front yard, which wasn't too big, but big enough for two people sparring.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Reading her movements wasn't that hard; she might have been fast, but she followed a pattern that I could read, but if I slipped my guard and she punched me I would certainly lose. I dodged all her punches with minimum movement to avoid wasting too much energy, but as she was fast I also had to make quick steps and it was hard to follow her pace. I managed to catch her wrist and then I pounded her on the ground, but as her body fell she also rolled and then she kicked my waist. I as thrust backwards and I was about to throw up when I forced my body to fall in order to avoid a face punch, yet I was about to be kick again and I managed to grab her ankle and decelerate the speed and the power from her mighty kick and I punched her on the waist as well making as she drew his fist near to my hips to immobilize me. I dropped her ankle and jumped backwards.

We kept sparring like that for a while until we were sweat dropping, and after like and hour of spare we decide to take a small break.

"You've improved your speed." Maquiel recognized "Your technique is amazing! Far better than mine; serves good a seventh Dan."

"How much till I get it?"

"I don't know, for Matthew it took around a month and for me four years, it's hard to tell."

But I was able to tell that there was something different on the circumstances in which they developed their final forms. A final form is bestowing our smasher our power, yet when Matthew first used it, he was on a desperate battle, and so was Maquiel when she did it. Whenever I had a fight I took it seriously, but it was never desperate, because most of my fights were alongside someone, there were only a few instances in which I fought all by myself, with only Yoshi to aid me. And there was another thing: my personality. It was hard for me to freak out, even after my meltdown when Lucario turned me into that beast I recovered quickly; I was too cool headed, how was I going to be desperate enough? Of course I have felt it, but not while struggling. Maybe there was another way; if I could just control these powers better I could bestow them directly to Yoshi. I gulped; I knew about someone (besides Lucario) that could teach me how to use my skills, but it wasn't easy for me to think about it.

"Let's call it a day."

"So soon?" Maquiel asked puzzled "It's been just an hour!"

"I have something to do."

"What?"

"It's personal."

Maquiel frowned curious and then she sighed.

"Ok, go ahead." She wasn't in any hurry to teach me, after she and Matthew became a couple I could tell that she only wanted to stay with him all day long, having sex and do some other things as well "Whenever you feel like training again, here I'm."

I thanked her and then while waving my hand I walked back into the house and then into my room. I took everything I needed to leave. I left the house while I sighing as I walked out and then down the street. I didn't like the place where I was going, it brought me bad memories, and it was way too painful.

"_What's up with that place? Where are we going? How is it like?_"

I didn't want to describe it, so I remained silent, after all he would see it soon enough.

I had to take a bus so that it could take me to this isolated part of the city where there was a creepy and big pale blue building. When I reached it I felt that my heart beat faster as I opened the door. As I walked inside, the receptionist looked at me puzzled, so I knew she must have been working there for a while, and she didn't understand what I was doing there, but she didn't care.

"How can I help you?"

"I came to pay someone a visit." I said slowly "The name is Samuel Wolf."

"There are restricting orders so that only family members can visit him."

"I'm his son."

"May you show me your ID?"

I handed her the card and she seemed at me puzzled. She didn't understand why I was coming to see him after all this time, years in which he had been confined all alone in this mental institution, but once again she didn't care and she drew me to the break room. At the time they must have ended breakfast and they were resting on a room that could only be visited by family.

"Samuel, this is a very special day."

When I saw him I felt very nervous, excited and a bit scared at the same time. The man had a beard that covered most of his face below the nose, his pale blue eyes seemed to have turned into a grey tone, his face was thinner than what I could remember, the hair was messy and same color as mine (light brown) and he walked forward at a dull and slow pace, like a scared cat with his small body, smaller than mine, and a bit fatter.

"Who is this?"

It hurt me a lot that he couldn't recognize me. I could understand it, but I it still hurt; after all I would have been able to tell who he was no matter how much he changed. I tried to calm myself down, he hadn't seen me since I was a boy and my physical aspect changed quite a lot, that much I knew.

"Mr. Wolf, this is your son, Robert."

Tears filled my father's face as he walked slowly towards me and he hugged me. I hugged him back as I was about to draw tears.

"Hello dad." I managed to say "It's been a while."

He didn't reply, he was too shock by the very fact that I came to see him; while I embraced him I could feel his sorrow and his happiness at the same time. Then he broke the hug and he guided me to a table.

"Take a sit!" he said a bit cheerfully "I want to hear everything! I want you to tell me… how is your mother?"

"I… I don't know really, we haven't spoken in years."

"How many?"

"4… I became a Judo teacher."

"Oh Robert I'm so proud of you!" he said with a sincere smile and cheerful tone "I always knew you would make! I'm so happy that in the end you ended up becoming a Judo teacher! That's what you always wanted!"

I couldn't avoid shedding tears; he was the only person I knew that was only concerned about my happiness, besides Yoshi of course. He and my mother used to fight over my future all the time; while my mom wanted me to go to college and do a career that made a good profit, my father wanted me to do whatever I really loved doing and he was the first noticing that Judo was the path I wanted to follow. That's why it was so hard for me when he came here.

"Tell me more." He asked me impatient "So you are living by yourself, aren't you?"

"Yes." I decided not to enter in the details.

"Have you met someone?"

"If you mean a girlfriend, then no."

"Got it." He was trying to gather the most important pieces of information, because he knew we wouldn't see each other in a long time after this "Are you happy son?"

I turned my head aside; I couldn't lie about that. I was broken inside, and if I said yes then he would notice it was a lie. He sighed as he smiled.

"I'm proud of you son."

I looked at him puzzled.

"What for?"

"You are not here with me." He mumbled "That means that you didn't let those abilities take over you."

I looked at him again and then… as I stared at his face I came to the realization of why he had been sent here. Since I was three years old I knew I was different, I knew that I could send people my thoughts, and my dad was always worried about teaching me how to control it. He said to me that I had a great power inside that I should not use, because it would hurt people. I didn't understand how telepathy could do that, but as the years passed by my father started to have a drink every night and then one night he just couldn't have it and he had nervous meltdown; he broke every single piece of furniture in the house, he started twisting in pain and he even ended up cutting himself. He kept like that until mom decided to confine him here. Back then I was seven years old, and since then I never understood what happened, but I never forgot some of his words: "I killed them! No, I didn't… I sent them to the void!"

It came back to me… Send them to the void, making them not to exist… that's what I did with Stephan, I destroyed his soul, and that's probably what dad did. Of course he was really alone back then, nobody could understand his power, his situation, but at very least I had Yoshi to keep me going.

"_Robert…_" Yoshi mumbled in my head.

"I… I want to know more." Dad said "What's your favorite food? Color? What do you like to do besides Judo? Have you made good friends? Do you have a plan for the future? Just… tell me anything about you, anything you want."

"I did make some friends." I replied "Very good and loyal ones… right now I can't think about the future, because it's just escaping my reach… I like rice with curry and meat, and I also like the color dark green, and… well it's hard to think of telling you anything, I don't see what's worthy telling or not."

"Everything is worth telling!" he said "Any little detail of your life, of you likes or dislikes, is telling me who my son is, and I want to know him better, because if I'm not wrong, you are not coming back…"

"Of course I'm coming back!" I replied out loud "I know I haven't come before… but… I also want to get to know you dad…"

He was unsure that he could embrace me, so I did it and I could feel his relief as we hugged. And it made it harder for me to think on asking him about my powers… but I had to, otherwise we would not see each other again, I would get killed off first.

"Dad, I'm struggling."

"Are you?"

"I'm… in middle of a battlefield… with people like me."

Dad broke our hug so he could stare me at the eyes. He understood what I meant.

"Is that why you are here?" he asked insulted "Is that what this is about? Do you want tips to kill?"

"No!" I replied immediately "But I need to understand my powers."

"No... You can't go down that road!"

"Please, dad!"

"I'm not your father!" he said as he thrust me backwards "He is not my son!" he yelled as he got himself into a corner and then he fell into his knees and covered his head in his lap "I want to go home."

A nurse helped me to get up and told me that those behaviors were usual, and that I shouldn't be scared. Yet, I knew that I made a mistake, I just made my father to revive all his madness all over, just when he seemed sane enough to leave. How many years did he live among these crazy people? I just came here to make his lose it for good.

"_You couldn't know this would happen!_"

But I was selfish anyway; I never came to visit him when I should have, he was trapped on immense loneliness and I never did anything to help him get through it. I sobbed while I got out of the building; the shame was too great and my heart beat fast as I felt sick. I looked upwards trying to make sense of everything, thinking while staring at the clouds… but there was nothing. Everyone counted on me and all I could do was standing by, waiting for something to happen. We were just reacting, if we wanted to stop things we should have attacked first, but… how? When? We knew more than ever and yet we were on the edge of ignorance.

"_Quite a sad look on your face, Robert._"

My eyes opened wide as I turned aside; the words echoes in my mind and Yoshi seemed to be both troubled and angered at it. When my eyes stared at Lucario I couldn't hide the fear of being controlled, but I didn't hesitate on shape shifting, I would take him down now and finish the struggle.

"_Are you sure you want to fight? Against me?_"

I wouldn't wait for him to take over me, however I couldn't hide the fear while I ran towards him. Lucario seemed rather tranquil while I headed towards him to kick him; he stopped the boot with ease as I flipped and hit his head with my tail. Then, while in the air, I recovered quite fast to use my whole weight and fall quickly as a brick in Lucario's waist, but he was fast enough to dodge.

"_You are faster and…_"

I didn't give him the chance to finish, I turned into an egg and rolled over him two times before I broke it and then I grabbed him with my tongue and threw him away.

I didn't understand why he wasn't fighting back, but it surely scared me, it gave me a really bad feeling about it all.

"_Why are you so afraid? Do you think you can defeat me like that?_"

"_SHUT THE HELL UP!_" I replied pissed "_You should have died on the explosion back then!_"

"_Die? Do you really think all those smashers died?_"

Lucario's words frightened me, but he was obviously lying; the trophies were all gray, none of them had any life on them anymore… unless.

Lucario seemed to have disappeared, but not without leaving a message echoing in my mind.

"_We've already won. Palutena is here, and now you only have to play your role._"

I shape shifted back immediately to my human self and I stomped on the ground even more pissed, but all that anger was covering what was really there… fear, fear of being unable to help my friends at all.


	2. Discord

_**Author Note:**__I finished it! Today I wrote the last chapter! So I'll be uploading every three days a new chapter so I can check any mistakes now and then. This chapter might be a bit tedious, but it's necessary, so go easy on it, the good it's to come very soon. Enjoy anyway!_

* * *

><p><strong>Discord<strong>

Being back at home wasn't as good as I thought; I was still clueless and everyone was looking up to me, waiting for some answers. I wondered how long they were going to wait for me to finally give an order.

I was sitting on the edge of the staircase and someone sat next to me; Ash. I wasn't surprised that he sought me for answers, he was always the reluctant one, he always wanted to know everything on advance, to be prepared for what was to come, and I liked that, he wasn't like most of them who just believed in me.

"Being a leader isn't easy, is it?"

"I'm no leader." I replied while sighing "All what I did was to give a pretty corny speech and then everybody thought that I could lead them to victory with the power of love."

"Can't argue with that." He said while stretching "They are all pretty sensitive, they like corny talk, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't like it too."

"What was on it to like?"

"Well, for instance I could tell there was hope in your words."

I turned my head aside, his words were not what I was expecting, and they just made me feel even worse, how the hell could I give them hope?

"Have I entered into an alternate universe where Ash believes in hope and the power of friendship?"

"Not by a very long shot." Ash said while laughing a little bit "But hear me out anyway. Since we picked our side we didn't know where we were heading. We just reacted, we waited to be attacked, but we never really knew who our enemy was; we never knew who we could trust or not."

"How is it any different now?"

"Now we know who our allies are." He said firmly "Some months ago I didn't know who I could trust and I left the party, and when I came back I saw that there was no telling of who we could trust or not yet. But when you spoke it became very clear; I know who my comrades are already, and I have to do my best to get them back. So, basically, our enemies are everyone who is trying to avoid that, including Palutena and Tabuu."

_If he knew I was a candidate for being Tabuu's vessel I bet I wouldn't have his trust right now. _Ash's trust was really hard to earn, I could understand that because he was like me, still the fact that he trusted me was simply more than what I thought I was able to handle. Even the most reluctant soldier was waiting for my commands, commands that I couldn't think of yet; I had too much burden in my shoulders.

"We can't expect for you to know what the right move is right now." He said like he just read my thoughts "I guess that by now you can tell that we are alike, that's why I trust that when you make a choice, you'll know it is the right one."

"I hope so." I said weakly.

"You are not half idiot Robert; Matthew might be sharp and smart, but he made many mistakes and he had several meltdowns, and Maquiel is the most reckless human being I've ever met, how can we expect you to do worse?"

I laughed and then he started laughing too. It was true, we were alike, and we even mocked them in the same way.

"It was time for them to start hanging out." He said "Ever since they started working together it was obvious that there was something going on."

"They were just too stupid to figure it out."

"Can't argue with that." He said as he got up "Well, no use bitching about the past, why don't we just have a drink?"

"I don't feel like it today."

"Really? You blamed me of being an alternate Ash and now you come up with this? Robert never turns down a drinking offert."

"Robert is just not in the mood to drink tonight, he took the night off."

"If you change your mind I'll be sinking worries over alcohol on the kitchen."

"Go, enjoy yourself… actually, I may join you later."

I sighed as he left; I liked him, his words were actually quite the right ones, I guess I really couldn't do worse than the whiny Matthew and reckless Maquiel. I smiled at the thought; I was no stronger than them, but at the very least I had some common sense, right?

I had no time to keep thinking; the door was kicked and I saw how Sophie came in with an almost bare naked Melanie, covered only by a blanket, on her arms and Salaric behind her. I stood up and ran next to her in a moment.

"Everybody, come here!" I yelled "Melanie is back!"

It took around ten seconds for everyone to gather in the living room. Link, Matthew and Maquiel were the first ones to arrive, they couldn't believe that Melanie was really back with us.

I touched her cheek in order to sense her temperature; average. She didn't look sick at all, she seemed just peacefully asleep, but… what if Palutena was the one who would wake up? I was about to turn my eyes aside, but for some reason I wanted to keep looking at her face, I wanted to make sure she wouldn't disappear from my sight if I blinked.

"Is she…?" Link asked concerned.

"No, Palutena is not in possession of the body." Sophie explained "I don't know why, but Melanie is the one who is in control of the body."

"How did you find her?" asked Matthew.

"I was about to leave abroad, and before I took the flight, she appeared out of nowhere in middle of the room, asking for help. She fainted right after she saw me; somehow she managed to get her, but I don't understand how."

"Back when Palutena took over Melanie, Ed pierced her waist and Palutena seemed to lose control." Maquiel said excited as she tried to make sense of things "She said that Ed gave her something, maybe something to restrain her."

"So what? Was she injected kryptonite?" I asked confused "I don't get it, first a man who claims to be your father's shadows came out of nowhere and confronts Palutena, and then Melanie regains control and disappears, so that she could reappear now, two months later?" I sighed "Every time we get an answer to something somebody changes the question. I mean, can we really be sure Palutena won't come back?"

"That doesn't matter!" Matthew replied "Melanie is back, if Palutena were to be back we'll deal with her when that comes to happen, but we won't leave Melanie on her own!"

"Don't misunderstand Matthew, I never meant that." I shook my face a little and then I kept talking "If she is to come back I want to know that we're going to be prepare to do what it takes."

"Are you out of your mind?" Matthew asked pissed "She is my little sister! I don't care what is inside her, I'm not going…!"

"Could you cut the drama?" I asked annoyed "I want to know what is in her body that restrains Palutena so that we can use that again, so that we can assure that Melanie's body won't be taken over, so here's my suggestion. Ed was working on Wolf's side; he was created, as he said, to stop Tabuu and Palutena, so why don't you know about this Matt? You've been four years along with Wolf! Tell me what the hell is in Melanie's system so that we can protect her."

Now every single eye was set on Matthew. Nobody asked that question, why wasn't Matthew sharing information? He had to know more than us as he had been working alongside Wolf for quite some time, so why? Why to stay quiet for two months when the information might save lives?

No eyes gave him such a hard look on him as I did; I was confused, I wanted answers, and I wanted them right back then, not any minute after.

"Wolf didn't exactly share everything with me…"

"Fair enough." I noticed that I interrupted what seemed to be a long story, but I knew there was no time "Ask him then."

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?" I asked pissed as I reached for the collar and grabbed it with might "Which one is it?"

"Get off my back!" he replied angrily as he pushed me back "If I could, I would have already done that! Wolf is a very secretive person; do you know every little detail about Yoshi's life?"

"I know what he's been doing because he is in my body!" I replied "So why are you lying?"

"Hey! Don't jump into conclusions!" Maquiel interfered, she was now in the middle ground between Matthew and me "Who are you to say that he is lying?"

"I'm a liar myself! It's got one to know!"

"Ok, Robert! Chill out!" Sophie said angrily as she imposed herself "I understand that you want answers, I understand that you are under pressure, but don't take it on Matthew! There's one thing we all care about, and its family, so when Matthew says he doesn't know about something that might help Melanie, I believe him."

_Just like you believed in him when he betrayed you all, just like you all trusted in me when I was with the enemy, what the hell do you all know about trust? We're always hit because we trust the wrong people! You entrusted me as your leader! That's insane! And it's insane to think that Matthew doesn't know about Wolf's plot if he developed them himself! You are just a bunch of kids that want to believe that you can rely on something else! Grow up!_

"_Robert…_"

I was about to let all that go out of my mouth, I was about to let all the rage come out, but I wasn't really angry at them; Yoshi's voice in my mind made me realize that I was merely angry at their choice to trust me, so I decided to calm down, getting angry at them wouldn't make anything good.

"Right." I sighed as my body relaxed "What do you know Matthew?"

He was a little shock, I could tell that he already read my train of thoughts by analyzing my face, but he didn't say anything about it, he merely answered the question I asked.

"It's not that I don't know anything, it's that I don't know everything." He explained "Wolf hired Ed two years ago because he was preparing Palutena's trap… the one set for Maquiel and you."

Wolf's original plot consisted in forcing Pit to make Maquiel the new vessel of Palutena, and make me the vessel for Tabuu, then send us to Zero World and trap us both there forever. It wasn't very easy for Matthew to say that he was collaborating in the murder of his bride to be, and it sure wasn't nice for Maquiel to hear it from her fiance 's voice either. Maquiel turned her eyes aside as everybody got their eyes set on Matthew, with exception of Link who was still checking for Melanie in the couch.

"Wolf knew him from the past, but he never let me see that memory, he had it locked somewhere I couldn't see it, I just knew he was a man that was able to bring things to an end, and he was also useful at the time to rise the army, he, somehow, managed to make smashers and shape shifters develop final forms. He taught Stephen first."

Now I was the one turning the eyes aside; that was the man I killed some months ago in cold blood. No, dying was different from erasing one's soul, even I couldn't understand what I did to him. The thought of doing that to somebody else, to somebody in this very room… it frightened me. I noticed that Maquiel's eyes were on me; she saw me at that time, and she saw me in that building roof two months ago as a bizarre mixture of Yoshi and Lucario, I knew that she didn't want to believe it, but somewhere in her mind she feared that it would happen again; and so did I.

"Ed usually worked alongside Anna, they prepared a set up, but it wasn't necessary, because at the time Maquiel came she wasn't Palutena, she was her usual self and she rescued me. I never saw Ed's work, he was very quiet, and he did everything he had to on the underline, and then he reported it, so whatever he used to restrain Palutena was out of my range of knowledge."

"Then it's very clear what we have to do." I said happy to see that I was ready to give an order, and so was everyone; their eyes were bright with hope when they sensed that I was ready to make a move "We go to Zero World, figure out what Ed used and bring it back."

"How do we go there?" Ash asked "Last time Kirby showed us the path; sure we can have Link playing the ocarina, but we might get lost."

"But I'm here." Salaric said breaking the silence he kept during the whole talk "Meta Knight can show me the path towards Zero World; Matthew and Snake are here too, we've all been there, and we can show you the path."

"Seems like mister leader finally came up with a good idea." Matthew said.

"Yet we don't know what the situation is over there." Snake complained "Most of Wolf's minions were killed on the explosion, is there anyone left there beside Gabriel? And what is his stand on all of this? We might find chaos there, with Zero World free of Wolf, maybe Ike's party and the remains of night stalkers lay there."

"Whatever the case is, it's what we'll do." I said as I looked at Salaric "We'll be counting in you to guide us."

"Ok, just leave somebody so that can guard Sophie and Melanie." Salaric asked. "Some one strong…" he added, and then he downed his head "No offense to anyone."

"Not taken." Ash said quite coldly "We understand."

"I've already chose someone; Matthew."

Everybody looked at me as if I was crazy, just as expected.

"Isn't Matthew the one who knows that place the best?" Lucas asked confused.

"Exactly, so I think they are counting that he goes back, and if Gabriel is there then he might be prepared for Matthew's come back, besides he is strong enough to protect both Melanie and Sophie."

"Why not Maquiel?" asked Snake "She is pretty tough too."

"I know, but if anything I'm right, Gabriel is expecting us to do that, and he might have some kind of set up."

"Even if he does, what makes you think it can stop me?" Matthew asked "I'm stronger than him now, besides, what makes you think he is our enemy any longer? If I could talk to him…"

"Matt, please trust me." I said at least "Ike is still out there, waiting for us to take our guard off, and I'm pretty sure that over there Gabriel is up to no talk either; if you leave I'm afraid Ike is going to come for Melanie, he wanted her to be Palutena on the first place! We'll go there, we'll get what we need and we'll get back."

"I know every single room over there, I know where Ed might have left something like that, I also know that when the remaining smashers look at me they'll know that Wolf is inside me and that I might be able to bring them to our side, so why? Are you basing this on a hunch?"

_Everybody agrees, everybody thinks he is right, so why am I the one calling the shoots again? I know it's not that simple, it never is. But I know, I'm sure that… _I was sure of what? I didn't know a thing! What was I thinking?

"Robert, I understand your concern." Maquiel said "But Matthew might be right, maybe is the best if we swap places this time. Don't worry; I'll kick anybody's sorry asses if they dare coming here!"

"I know you will." I said while sighing "Give me a minute."

"_Brother, if you think is the best to have Matthew over here, then follow your instinct! I believe in you!_"

"_What is in me to believe? Even when everybody says I'm the leader, it's obvious who has the last word on this…"_

"I say we do this on Robert's way."

Everybody stared astonished at Ash; no one saw that coming.

"Robert is no idiot, and if I know the smashers as I do then I can say that they wouldn't wait two months for Wolf to come back, they would move forward, and probably see us as enemies. Also the circumstances in which Melanie came back are strange, maybe Ike or Gabriel are behind it, and if so we better leave the best warrior behind to protect her. There's also the thing there, Gabriel might be waiting for us, he is a son of a bitch, but he isn't an idiot, he might have something prepared in the scenario Matthew goes there, and if worse comes to worse…"

He didn't even say it, but we all knew what he meant.

"Is that what this is about?" Matthew asked hurt "Are you afraid I'm turning against you?"

"No." I said "I'm afraid we might lose our chance to save Melanie, I'm afraid that we fail, I'm afraid that I'm not making the right choice, but not that. I chose you to stay here so you can protect your sister, and so that we can sneak in there without causing too much hassle."

Everybody seemed to be thinking about it, they were still unsure about what to believe.

"It's my call."

Everybody nodded. Matthew palmed my shoulder as he gave me a serious, yet friendly luck.

"I trust you; if you decide it's best for me not to go, I'll believe you."

_That's soooo corny Matthew; well, you were always the sensitive one. _

"Thanks." I replied as I sighed "Link, stand up! You are taking us there!"


	3. Take over the monster

**Take over the monster**

I couldn't blame the smashers- especially Snake- to be reluctant about my call; I noticed that Maquiel wasn't completely ok with this, but she tried. The only one who had any kind of trust in my call was Ash, which made me a bit nervous; after all not even I was sure I was doing the right thing. We had Snake to guide us there, he knew every place as well as Matthew, but he wasn't the one in charge there. What if Matthew was right? What if not bringing him there might screw it?

"_Robert, please, some self dignity!_"

"_Right…_"

Yoshi always encouraged me to believe in me, but it wasn't really easy for me, I rather have other people making such important choices, I was better obeying or critiquing than actually taking responsibility for everyone.

Siege Castle was not really far from us, Salaric and Snake lead us on a clear path here, and nobody got lost like the last time. Zero World seemed pretty much the same; the eternal orange sunset above our heads, the desert around the castle with no other life, but the ones within the huge stone castle. As we walked forward to get in the entrance we had a glimpse of a shape as we got nearer. Maquiel and I shape shifted in the double. Gabriel was waiting for us with his Fox's shape, as usual, and the rod in his right hand, ready to fight.

"So Lord Wolf isn't coming?" Gabriel asked calmed as he stared at me "Are you calling the shoots now Robert?"

"_We didn't come here to fight Gabriel, but we will if you attack us._"

Gabriel seemed prepared to kill, but he just remained still, as we were. There was too much tension on the air, I had a bad feeling, and it seemed like we would end up fighting.

"_Wolf is no longer in charge._" I said "_You are free; you don't have to follow him any longer, so you can come back with us._"

"And what makes you think I'd do that?" He asked amused "It's been two months already, don't you think I'd already done that if I were too? He laughed a little bit "There's no one here, the smashers who followed Wolf died, the humans who served him withdrew, so I might just take over and do as I like."

"_Why? You were working for Wolf! He is done and so his plot, so why? Why to choose being alone?_"

"Because the smashers who escaped the explosion are surely searching for a strong leader." Snake interrupted "While I was here I noticed that you were strong, but I also noticed that you only followed Wolf in order to grow even stronger, so I guess you want to take his position."

"I already did."

"What for?" Maquiel asked "It doesn't make any sense."

"Of course it doesn't, my dear Maquiel." He said with a creepy voice "Well, not to you actually; after all you don't know what I'm looking for."

His eyes were set on Salaric, who stepped backward a bit afraid.

"I thought I told you I'd kill you Meta Knight."

Everybody got around Salaric, ready to defend him and attack Gabriel, but he didn't move yet. I didn't understand what was going on, but I could tell that he wasn't kidding, yet he seemed to laugh, he seemed to be amused, and his eyes showed something that had been growing on him since quite a while: madness.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean now." He said calmly "It's just too weird; I thought Matthew would come, looking forward to take control over things here. It's a good thing he didn't come or I would have to kill him."

"Like you could!" Maquiel shouted as she stepped forward "Matthew would kick the crap out of you!"

"You think so, uh?" he asked still in that state of calm and madness "You don't know what I'm capable of now."

"Maybe." Maquiel said "But I know you helped me several times! I know that Gabriel is not dead as you say he is! So nap out of it!"

Gabriel stop laughing, but the bizarre smile on his snout didn't go away, and the darkness and sorrow in his eyes seemed to consume me as I glared at them; I felt some fear while being near of him. And then, when I stepped forward I fell on my knees.

"Robert?" Maquiel asked concerned.

"_FUCK DAMN IT!_" I shouted out loud.

I could feel it in my brain, how someone tried to mess up with my mind… but how? When? Then I noticed that out of nowhere Ike appeared playing Ganondorf's black ocarina, and next to him there was Lucario. Why were they together? They were a team now? Apparently not, because as soon as Ike finished playing, he brandished his sword against Lucario who just jumped backwards avoiding the attack.

I stared at Lucario with fear as he smiled at me, and Ike set his eyes, for an instance, on me too, before glaring at Lucario.

"The boy comes with me." Ike declared.

"_Sorry, but I'm the one who holds the bond, what can you do?_"

"I can take your guts out!"

I didn't really know what to do, a fight seemed inevitable, but I knew that there was something more important than fighting. We had to find whatever Ed used and bring that back.

"_Gabriel, step aside!_"

It was like he didn't care us at all, he went towards Ike and the rod clashed with the sword as Lucario stepped forward towards me, but Maquiel quickly ran towards him and punched him on the face, and then she pounded him on the ground.

"Go!" she said "I'll be fine, you find the thing!"

I shape shifted back to my human self just so that Yoshi wouldn't be trapped within Lucario's control, but I knew that even in my human self he could take over me and transform me into that monster. If anyone, but Maquiel see that…

"Robert, what's wrong?"

Ash's question made me snap out of it and quickly followed Snake and Meta Knight, while leaving Maquiel behind. While we ran I noticed that Link and Lucas also started being left behind.

"We'll back up Maquiel!" Lucas said.

"All right, just don't get killed!" I yelled back.

While they left Snake lead us through a lot of staircases and rooms, through a path that seemed rather infinite and monotonous. He had an idea of where Ed might have stored whatever he used, I knew that much, but we needed to get it quickly and escape as fast as possible, if I got trapped within Lucario's control I was done for.

"That's the basement!" Salaric said "It's locked, no one ever entered here."

"That's why I'm blowing up the door." Snake said "All of you step back!"

We all did, we stepped around a half mile back so that Snake could detonate de plastic explosives that blew out the door. As the flames started dissipating I could catch a glimpse on a shape at the other side of the door; Mewtwo and Falco were there.

"_Gabriel was lying!_" Yoshi pointed out "_There might be even more smashers around than we thought._"

The fact that Gabriel was lying meant that Lucario didn't. We saw many smashers dying in the explosion, but not all of them were gone. We already knew that Mewtwo was alive, but I actually thought Falco was a goner, and when I crossed the door I also caught a glimpse on Wario.

"Wasn't Matthew supposed to come here?" Wario asked puzzled.

Falco's eyes and mine met, since our first encounter we knew that one would kill the other eventually; this was the third time we met ready to fight.

I shape shifted and then I had a quick glimpse on the room. It was dark, a few lights illuminated the room enough so that I could see them, but the place was almost like an empty basement, there was nothing that seemed to indicate that we could find whatever we were looking for. That's when I realized we didn't even know what we were looking for, we didn't know how it looked like, I hoped to find some kind of record or something that could give me a hint, but there was obviously none in that room.

After a second of analyzing the space I had to jump forward in order to Falco's flash dash; while in the air I centered all my weight in the waist and quickly fell making him stomp on the ground and right after that I turned into an egg and rolled all over the place, clashing against Wario and Mewtwo as well. When I broke from the egg I noticed that Falco was about to dash at me again, but Salaric stopped him by slashing his sword; Falco got barely cut and he only bled a little bit on his wrist. Ash covered my right side while he called forth Charizard and Pikachu stood beside them to fight Mewtwo. Snake was around Wario, setting traps around and he drew a rocket launcher to fire at Wario, but he dodged it well.

"Go!" Ash said "We got this! You find it!"

I nodded and then I jumped my way off the battlefield to keep looking for that thing. While I was about to leave Salaric managed to injure Falco before he stopped me and so I shape shifted back to my human self and ran. I took a door that was at the end of a pitch dark corridor on the basement and then I followed a dark path that I could barely see. I was concerned that I would eventually crash a wall or fall, but I didn't, I just ran around what it seemed like an infinite dark corridor until my hand seemed to find a latch. I opened the door, then I tried to look for some switch to turn on the lights; when I found it I also found something shocking. There was a huge board at the right wall, and there were many pictures on it, pictures of me, Maquiel, Matthew, Melanie and Gabriel, there were also some old pages from a ripped notebook or something, coordinates, IDs, dates, and many other things I could not recognize. The whole board was joined by straight lines. I put my finger on my picture and my blood froze when I saw the date below it. October 31st 2009. There was a note next to it that said "The first".

"_That's the day we met!_" Yoshi said.

I quickly moved my finger around Matthew's picture; April 1th 2010, "The last one". Melanie: March 10th 2010, "The fourth one". Maquiel's: January 3rd 2010, "The third one". Gabriel: December 17th 2009, "The second one". These were the dates in which we became shape shifters.

I tried to process it; I never told a soul the date in which I became I shape shifter, even that night the ones who saw me didn't know I was one yet, then how? How somebody did know the date I became one? Even after becoming a shape shifter I wasn't walking around as Yoshi, I hide it very well until Matthew became a shape shifter as well. I couldn't understand it, but I was sure afraid, somebody had been spying me before I even met Yoshi.

Then I followed the lines that spread from my lines, and I found the date when I left Yoshi behind and became Wolf, the date when I received seventh Dan, and as I kept going I found more and more, but… there was something missing.

"Where is it?" I asked freaked out.

The date in which the night stalkers killed my students and my fiancée was not there. Why? Everything else was. And as I kept going I also found a date that was named "The cure" which was July 1st 2014, and there was an anagram there, words messed around. I didn't think about it, I had no time to solve puzzles, I thought it be the best if I'd looked around the room for it, and so I opened the desk below the board. When I opened it I found what it seemed to be a vaccine.

"Is this it?" I asked myself "Is this Palutena's kryptonite?"

There were plenty of them there, fully charged with a green substance. I could've swore that was it, but I didn't want to risk it, if I was wrong I might have give Melanie something that could kill her. I set my eyes on the board again, and the date August 23th 2014 took my attention; there was an envelope hanging on a pin next to the date. I took and of the board and read what seemed to be a letter.

August 23th 2003:

Salaric, I know what you are scheming, I know all about the project, do you think is it a coincidence that Vincent is around there screwing all your plots? Not even Lex can stop him, not even if you kill him, because I've already set in motion the missing pieces of my own plot. When the time is ready Ed is going to destroy your precious "deities", when the times comes you will also bite the dust. It's a heavy burden for me, leaving this behind, leaving my daughter behind, however I'm not afraid, because even if you read this letter you can't change a thing, she will stop you. Anyway, I'm sure that you've already used my DNA to create those gods of yours, haven't you? That's the same reason why I can destroy them. I'm really sorry for you, in the end I could do nothing to save you, but maybe someday the kids will be able to guide your redemption. It's all up to them now, because of you a great burden is falling to them, and this letter is just a reminder of your sins, but I don't judge you, so I want you to know that I understand, it takes a sinner to know another. When the time comes, I trust that you can read this letter and die in peace. If you ever, ever have the chance, please tell Samuel that "I knew the dog wouldn't hunt", I bet he would be sad to see the way Robert is going to grow up. None of the kids deserves this fate… I can only hope they create good memories while they can.

Well it's about time, I'm done.

Until next time my dear friend.

Richard Gilbert.

The letter fell from my hands as they shook with might. That was Maquiel's father, talking about Salaric and my dad…

"They knew it." I mumbled "Dad… what did you do?"

I fell on my knees as I tried to make sense of things; and then I felt like I was just a mere pawn in a chess game, and now everything… how could I make sense of it?

"_Robert, calm down!_" Yoshi said softly "_There is no use looking backwards, let's this vaccine so that we can heal Melanie._"

I wasn't listening, I was too consume in my thoughts, in the revelation… the way I grew up, they knew I was going to end up using those aura powers? I started following the lines again on the board, looking for something in the future, but there was no date passed 2014, what did that mean? Was it incomplete? Or was it doomsday?

"_Robert!_" Yoshi shouted in my mind "_Please, let's get out of here._"

I kept the track backwards, trying to learn something else, something we didn't know; as I kept looking I noticed that there were a lot of pictures of the smashers prior to 2010, there was a picture of Sonic in middle of warfare in 2006, pictures of Mario, Samus and Fox together in 2009, even one of Roy, Wolf and Sonic around 2010 in a snowfield around Russia.

"Who took all these pictures?" I asked out loud.

I took some vaccines and I stored them carefully in some inner pockets around my jacket.

I took the board with me once I stored the vaccines. There were so many secrets carved there that I wanted to figure out, so much that I had to know. Someone had their eyes on us even before everything started; someone knew how things would play along as the time went by. As I walked down the dark corridor I could only think about this, I wasn't even listening to Yoshi's warnings, I was just focused in figuring all out, because if I could do that, then maybe I could finally stop everything. The final clue…

"… _SNAP OUT OF IT!_"

Yoshi screamed so loud in my mind that I couldn't ignore him.

"_Robert, you are being too consumed by this; you're not acting like yourself._"

"Of course not, this is the key to figure all out, fuck damn it!" I replied "For once in my life I can be one or two steps ahead of whoever is pulling the strings."

"_Robert, that board scares me… It's like it's pulling you away, like it's turning you in someone you're not. You don't freak out like this! Your train of thoughts is hell right now, this is not like you! Please, leave it behind! We don't need it!_"

"Are you nuts? Here's everything I need to know to figure out the future!"

"_But that's the point; you don't need a past in order to have a future._"

"You don't know what you're saying." I replied coldly, but then I calmed down and I tried to answer nicer "It's going to be ok Yoshi; there is nothing to worry about."

But there was, something I could not see at that time, I was seriously wrong. Seeing me, seeing everyone on that board made me think that I was on trail that I couldn't leave, that I was unable to stop what was coming next, and at the same time it made that all my fear went away, because if I could not stop it, what did all it matter? A smile was drawn into my face as I walked past the corridor and back to the basement.

"Robert!" Ash said.

They were just finished fighting; they had some wounds, but no one was severely damaged, besides there were no trophies so that meant nobody got defeated, the others probably escaped.

"What is that below your arm?" Snake asked.

"This is everything." I said "With this we might have won already."

"What do you mean?" Salaric asked "It seems like just a board to me."

"It's more than that." I said "It's…"

One again I fell on my knees. The board fell beside me and I took my jacket off so that the vaccines wouldn't break.

"Ash…" I said weakly "On the jacket's pockets there are vaccines, they seem to be what Ed used."

"Is it the cure?" he asked.

"Salaric, Snake" I said ignoring the question "take the board and rendezvous with Maquiel, Link and Lucas. Ash, you carry the vaccines; when you meet Maquiel wait 15 minutes for me, if I'm not there leave me behind."

They nodded, but before Salaric took the board he looked at me very concerned.

"Are you ok on your own?"

"Yes, yes." I said "Just go! There's something I gotta fix first."

Salaric nodded and just as expected they left me behind. I was glad that they obeyed that order with no farther hesitation, probably because they trusted that I would go back in time, but I wasn't very sure of it.

I stood up and prepared myself to fight.

"Get out of there Lucario!" I yelled "Let's finish this!"

He appeared in the middle of the room, just as expected. He was looking at me rather concerned, which was weird considering how his eyes always seemed to be calmed.

"_What's up with you?_" he asked "_You seem… different._"

I shape shifted while smiling; for some reason I wasn't afraid of him anymore, it was like suddenly all the fear of being controlled just went away.

"_There's no fear in your eyes._"

"_No, I'm not scared anymore._" I replied calmed "_But you should be._"

The wings spread faster than what even I expected and so I shot a fast fireball. Lucario barely dodged it, his leg was in fire, but it was extinguished in a moment, yet I flew towards him a tackled him strongly against the wall while flames came from my throat and started burning him. He thrust me backward with his aura, but I recovered quickly and flew once again against him and I kicked his face with my tail and then I flapped my wings with might so that the air pressure would avoid him making any movement, latter I shot a fire ball against his whole body and he fell on the ground, burning in flames, as he glared at me.

"_What are you?_" he asked.

His eyes stared at me; I noticed that he tried to use his aura connection to wrap me and Yoshi into his mercy, but this time was different, this time I was the one using the aura against him. For an instance I had Lucario's soul on my mercy, and I could feel the stimulation of his whole powers, I wanted to drag them out and made them a part of me, I wanted to leave Lucario as an empty shell.

"_ROBERT!_" Yoshi screamed in my mind.

That wasn't enough to bring me back to my senses, I was already taking the aura out of Lucario's body with my mind, but then suddenly I was hit from behind.

"Did you think I was leaving you alone with him?"

That was Maquiel's voice. I shape shifted back to my human self and I glared at Lucario; the flames were gone, but his body was weak, after all part of his soul was consumed by me, and the injuries in his body seemed to be really hurt.

"What were you doing?" she asked "You weren't yourself."

"I…"

When I was about to explain myself I suddenly felt a heavy burden on my back. I coughed blood and then I noticed that Lucario was getting up and that he had his hand extended towards me, he was using the fragments of aura I consumed to harm me. Maquiel ran towards him and she punched him in the face before he could keep going, but it was too late, because I noticed that he wasn't really trying to harm me.

"Maquiel!" I yelled freaked out "Lucario is… he is…"

"He is dead…" Maquiel said surprised when her hands touched his neck "I wasn't even trying that hard…"

"No, Maquiel… he is inside me…"

Maquiel eyes stared at me scared, because she understood exactly what it meant. It meant that Lucario transferred his whole soul inside me. He was there, waiting for the chance to overcome me, but when? The entire fearless act I had before fell apart when I thought about this… I was Lucario's puppet.

"Maquiel…" I said scared "There's only one thing we can do."

She looked at me puzzled.

"Kill me."


	4. Truth will break us 2, Broken Memories

**Truth will break us 2 [Broken Memories]**

"Are you nuts?" she asked pissed "How can you even ask me that?"

"Maquiel, he is inside me… he is crawling his way into my consciousness, it's just a matter of time…"

"I can't kill you!"

"Then I'll have to do it myself."

I ran towards her belt where she stored her beam blade, but she quickly hit my back and pounded me in the floor.

"You, asshole! You can't die here!" she said firmly "We need you!"

"I'm going to kill you all!"

"No, you won't!" she said as she took her blouse off and showed me her elbow "Do you see this mark?"

There was a tiny hole around Maquiel's elbow; there I saw a little white point.

"The day I killed Pit, he became a white liquid and he entered my whole body through this very spot, leaving this mark." She said a bit scared as she put her blouse back "Ever since then, no day has happened without wondering if Pit will take over me."

"Why didn't you say a thing?"

"You know Matthew; if I said something I would only make him worry." Maquiel said "So far I can't think of a way to pull it out of my body, but that doesn't mean there is not a way! So if you are the same you can't start second guessing, you have to remain strong until we figure out how to drag them out."

She released her hand from my back and I stood up as I stared at her concerned; to live with constant fear, hiding it from everyone… Maquiel was really strong, stronger than what I thought she was.

"They can try take over us." She finally said "But Yoshi and Samus are there to help us keep it together, so we just have to remain strong, and how knows? Maybe Palutena's kryptonite could work on us too."

Now I understood why she was so set on bringing Matthew here, she didn't want to ruin our chance to make sure she could restrain Pit's soul.

My eyes looked away for a second, I stared at Lucario's soulless body; I felt like a time bomb, with the countdown already set up and falling every second. I gulped at the thought and tried to cool my head as a tiny and short laugh passed through my lips; one second I'm not afraid of being controlled, and the other I was terrified by the chance of that happening.

Maquiel touched my shoulder and I stopped spacing out.

"Everybody is waiting, let's rendezvous."

"Right."

We ran our way out of Siege Castle, passing through endless doors as usual; the place was a maze, it was very easy to get lost, however getting into an exist wasn't that hard when Maquiel could knock down every single wall at dead ends with a mere fist.

Eventually we got out, and I was quite surprised to see that everything was quiet. Snake held the board under his arm as Ash checked out the vaccines in the cape. There was no sign of Gabriel, Ike, or any other smasher, where would they have gone? I had no idea, neither I was interested at the time.

"Link, guide us out." Maquiel said.

"Aye, aye captain." Link replied as he started playing.

* * *

><p>"I shouldn't have questioned Robert." I said quietly "But he is so full at himself at times! Does he think I'd turn against them? He always thinks he is so much better than me…"<p>

"You are one to talk about being full of oneself, sweetie." Mom said giggling as she rubbed Melanie's face.

"Geez, I know…" I said while I sat on the couch "It's just that… I don't know; I trust on Robert's ability to see things through, but there are times in which I'm not sure if he is going to make the right call. It got one to know."

Mom didn't reply to that, she simply wasn't letting anything ruin her mood, she was extremely happy to see Melanie safe and sound. I smiled, it was the very first time I ever saw her caring so much for her, it made me feel like for the first time ever we could be a true family… well, I wasn't really excited at the thought of calling Salaric "dad", after all he was just a stepfather, yet I knew mom would appreciate if I did that someday… someday, when the battle was already over, and my brother was already bron. And just as if she read my thoughts about that the day she said:

"You are waiting for the battle's end to get married, right?"

"I want it to be a big wedding." I said smiling "I don't know what will happen to the smashers after we defeat Tabuu and Palutena, but I'd like Link and company there."

"Talking about the devil." Said mom as everyone appeared in middle of the living room.

"Well, that was fast." I said astonished. "Did you get it?"

Robert handed me his cape and I noticed that there were vaccines on its pockets. I smiled at Robert.

"Well, I stand corrected. You made the right call."

But his face said something completely different; he avoided eye contact with me so that I wouldn't figure it out, however I could already tell by the movement of his hands, the position of his lips, and the trembling of his right leg that he was too anxious, a little bit scared maybe, and in order to hide it he used his usual cool cold face as a mask.

"Is everything ok?"

"Yes." He lied "There's something you need to see. Snake, give me the board please."

Snake handed Robert a board and he placed on the table. Everyone, but mom who stayed next to Melanie, gave a good glimpse on it; when I saw my picture and the date of the day I became a shape shifter I felt my blood freezing. The dates when Maquiel, Melanie and Gabriel became shape shifters were there too, and I could bet that October 31st 2009 was the date when Robert became one too. There were many events recorded there, many of which we knew and did not know anything about, all of them with little notes below. The note that intrigued me was the one that said "The cure." There was an anagram there.

"A pen and notepad!" I commanded "Quickly!"

The message said something like "Eon edos rpe kwee dshoul od tjus efin ot ssuppres ti. 'tCan ydestro, tbu ncontai; ot eb dteste." There was a pattern on how the words were distributed, the last letter of each word was at the beginning, and it wasn't really hard to figure it out. The message was something like this:

"One dose per week should do just fine to suppress it. Can't destroy, but contain; to be tested." I read it out loud so everybody could hear "It was quite simple, why to bother making an anagram a child could crack? There's something odd here."

Robert got close to me, he seemed puzzled, and then he saw the anagram and frowned.

"Wait… there's just four words there."

I frowned; it was weird for Robert to say something like that. At first I thought he was joking, but then Maquiel took a glimpse on it.

"Matthew, where did you get so many words?" she asked curious.

"What?" I said confused "Can't you see it?"

The smashers came closer to take a good look at it, and only Salaric was able to see the full anagram phrase like me. We shared a concerned look.

"Ok, I understand why it's easy now, because it was meant for only one to see." I said still staring at it "But why can only Salaric and me see it? This is odd…"

"Matthew, when things are not odd?" Robert asked impatient "The important thing is to know if it either works or not."

"Well, we saw it in action when Ed pierced Melanie's waist." Maquiel added "I think we ought to give it a try."

"How can you be so sure?" I asked.

"It was her father." Robert pointed out before Maquiel replied, while drawing an envelope out of one of his trousers pocket "he addressed a letter to Salaric".

Salaric eyes seemed puzzled as Robert handed him the letter, as he could not understand, and Maquiel walked nearer to get a glimpse towards his father's letter.

"Would you read it out loud?" Maquiel asked.

Salaric seemed troubled by Maquiel request; he did not read it out loud, but he did let Maquiel take a look at it first. She read it silently and she seemed to lose some color as she read it. She was finding an unpleasant truth about her father, I could tell. But at the time I gave a good look at Robert's face; the fear was back. Time to time since we named him our leader I could see that he grew afraid of something I wasn't aware, something Maquiel knew about and wouldn't tell me. I felt helpless, something I hated. But the worst of it was that I was also afraid; Robert told us that the night stalkers killed her students and her fiancée, but that never happened. Nobody, but I was aware of this very fact. When he met me on the graveyard some months ago he said "I had a good life until you messed with me", when he said I was sure he was talking about how I forced him to come back to the country, how I managed to get him to meet the nigthstalkers and become Pit and Lucario's puppet, however he wasn't talking about that, he actually thought Wolf and I killed those people… but neither the night stalkers or us did it, that event he was talking wasn't in the board because it never happened. But he was so sure about it that I was afraid to say anything, scared that he would freak out and we would lose him, besides there was something going wrong with him, and Maquiel wouldn't tell me. If I knew… no, if I overcame the fear and told him it would have ended different.

When Maquiel finished reading the letter, she handed it to Salaric and she was staring at him like she was blaming him for something, but no words came out of her mouth, she just walked pass us and I could tell she was about to cry.

"Um… guys…" I said puzzled.

"Go." Robert said "Take care of your bride to be."

* * *

><p>Matthew left within seconds to follow Maquiel; I breathed in and out, there was too much to think about. There was the fact that Lucario was crawling down my skin, the fact that many smashers were still alive, and the board; the absence of the massacre of my students and fiancée bothered me… and when I thought about it, it was just too blurry to really catch anything helpful.<p>

"Oh no…"

We all stared at Sophie with curiosity.

"Ike's party is in the communication tower."

_No time to wonder, you have to act leader._ If Ike was in town it meant that he had a plan for me to become Tabuu's vessel, then the best option was for me to fall behind.

"I don't know or care why Maquiel was upset, someone bring her and Matthew here." Snake nodded and he headed down stairs "I'll be here this time to protect Melanie and Sophie, Salaric you stay with me."

Salaric seemed rather relieved, and I knew it was best for him not to hang out with Maquiel, after reading that letter she must have been as confused as I was when I did, besides it was her dad. I wasn't sure to trust Salaric any longer too, he was somehow involved in the origin of Tabuu and Palutena, and the whole "amnesia" thing he said to have for four years could have ended at any minute and he could be using a cover, so I had to keep an eye on him. However he was innocent until something proved it otherwise, he didn't seem like the enemy at all. But for the time being I had another thing to figure out.

"Matthew is smart, he'll figure out what Ike's party is here for, so he is commanding this operation. Ash, I want you as second in command, you have very good senses about the smashers, so use that to our advantage."

"Now you are talking." Ash replied; I could tell he was relieved to be in charge as well, after all he didn't trust Matthew's judgment despite his intelligence, or maybe he doubted it because of it "What are we supposed to do?"

"They came here for a reason." I said "I want to know why. Find it out, and then come back. Ike's party is strong, we don't know how many warriors of sunset survived the explosion so be careful, if withdraw is necessary don't hesitate, do it. Don't split unless there is no way around it, they'll try to break the group so they can take you one by one. If need any support have Matthew or Maquiel to text me an "x", I'll know that means you need help and I'll be there."

I hoped that it wouldn't come to that, it would mean that I had to either leave Melanie with Salaric or that I could be sending him to them, although it was a last resort.

Everybody seemed to be ok with my instructions; Matthew and Maquiel went up stairs and she gave Salaric a deadly look. I was no Matthew to tell, but I thought that her look meant "We'll talk later". At the very least she was putting this mission before her desire to figure things out. I couldn't blame her for wanting to finally understand everything; especially now that our parents were involved… it was funny to think that our parents met on the very same matter that brought us together, like if we were the second generation or something.

"Ok, so I'll be leading this." Matthew said while sighing, it seemed that Ash already told him everything while I spaced out "You sure of this Robert?"

"Yes." I replied calmly "I'll take good care of Melanie, don't worry."

I could tell that Link wanted to be here with me and Salaric, since Melanie arrived like two or three hours ago he had been sent away twice, he had no chance to really be around her, still he understood it.

"Good luck, team." I said.


	5. Hello is rough, Goodbye is peace

_**Author Note: **__This has been the hardest chapter to write so far, believe me, I deleted it 6 times before getting a final version, I have never been so troubled at writing one single chapter and it got really extended. I think it is good, maybe one of the best I wrote so far, but that's my personal opinion, it's up to you to decide if you like it that much or not, but I know that after much work on it, it is indeed something else, and I wanted you to know how much effort I put into this (so if you have some complains about it and want to criticize it, please go easy on me this time ^^U). This chapter has a lot of POV, mainly Link, but also Robert, Snake, Salaric, Matthew and Ash/Pokemon Trainer. As always enjoy and review! This marks a before and after on the series._

* * *

><p><strong>Hello is rough, Goodbye is peace<strong>

"Here we are."

Matthew seemed confident enough; the communication tower was taller than what I previously imagined, it had probably over seventy floors and it was very wide, it was a skyscraper, with the shape of an antenna. Maquiel opened the door and I drew my sword at the double.

"Be prepared to attack." Matthew said while drawing Vatra out "Follow my lead."

Maquiel lifted her fist and was also ready to draw her beam blade just in case; they were not going to shape shift yet, they had a reason, but I didn't know what it was.

Ash had his first pokeball chose and he was ready to use it, Pikachu had some sparks around his cheeks, Snake prepared his guns and Lucas was ready to use his PK abilities. Matthew checked that we were all ready and then we entered in the lobby. It was dead empty, no single soul, no guards around, something very strange, and surprisingly common around smashers fight. There were hardly ever people around us while fighting smashers, and there were always reasons, however that day I would learn the truth about it.

"Check every entrance." Matthew commanded.

We all ran in different directions; we entered in the north entrance, so I decided to check the west one, as Snake went to the south one, and Lucas and Pikachu went towards the east one. Maquiel checked the stairs.

"Clear!" We all said.

"Let's take the stairs." Maquiel suggested "Taking the elevator would announce us."

We all followed Maquiel through the stairs; they seemed to be endless, and we didn't know which floor Ike's party was. Climbing 74 floors wasn't as troublesome as it seemed, it was trying to sneak in the trouble, after all we might have to check every single floor before running into them. If we had Melanie with us we wouldn't have this trouble. Then while thinking about Melanie I also thanked that she wasn't here, that she was at her safe house. I could only wish that Robert took good care of her, because somewhere deep down I knew I wasn't coming back.

* * *

><p>"Melanie?" I asked.<p>

When she slowly opened her eyes I felt that my heart beat faster than ever. Sophie and Salaric ran towards her, concerned. I kept an eye on Salaric still doubtful, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea having him around Melanie, but I couldn't say that out loud, not yet, or Sophie would take it so bad that we would fall apart, all I could do was to remain vigilant.

"Robert?"

I didn't expect that she would say my name first, and when she did it covered me with a warm feeling, I didn't know why, but I blushed.

Melanie's face seemed to be drowsy; she slowly turned towards her mother.

"Mom…" she said "Where is Link…? Matthew and Maquiel…?"

"They are fine." Sophie assured her as she rubbed her face "Sweetheart, are you ok?"

"I'm a bit sleepy…" Melanie said weakly "How did you get me back?"

"You appeared out of nowhere in an airport." Salaric rushed to explain "And then Robert went to Zero World to get a vaccine that can suppress Palutena, we just used one."

"Thank you, Robert." She said weekly.

"It's ok." I replied, still blushed "You would have done the same thing."

It was a very tender moment, until Sophie started breathing in and out very fast, and then she gave a faint, but still pitch scream. Then I noticed the floor was wet.

"The baby is coming!" she announced. "My water just broke!"

"It can't be!" I said shocked "How long have you been pregnant?"

"Eight moths and half." She noticed that I was a bit lost "I was pregnant before I got married."

"This is crazy!" I yelled "I thought you said you were five months! Why did you lie?"

"If I told you I was eight month pregnant, would you or Matthew let me search for Melanie?"

"That unborn child is your son as well!" I replied "What kind of…?"

"Does it matter right now?" Salaric asked, and I was actually relieved that he interjected, I wasn't going to say anything nice "My son is about to be born."

I didn't know what to do with this. Melanie was shocked, she wanted to get up, but she was so week that she fainted. I couldn't leave her alone with Salaric, so there was just one possible solution.

"Salaric, don't lose time! Take her to a hospital! I'll take care of Melanie here, but you have to make sure the delivery is done appropriately!"

It was the best I could do; it was Salaric's son, he wouldn't hurt him or Sophie, he had no reason to do so, and that way I would keep him away from Melanie.

Salaric seemed to be ok with my command, in fact rather relieved. He even hugged me.

"I'm going to be a father!" he said with enthusiasm before breaking the hug. Then he held Sophie's hand "Let's get you to a hospital, honey."

Sophie was lead towards the front door towards the yard; Salaric would probably take a cab and drive her to the hospital so that she could deliver.

Sophie was very good at pretending and deceiving, she didn't look like eight months pregnant at all and she played just fine to be five. I frowned as I wondered what other things she could have been hiding.

My train of thoughts was stopped by a text.

"You have to be kidding me."

* * *

><p>"There's no sign of them in this floor either." Maquiel announced.<p>

"Damn it!" Matthew said "If mom was here…"

I could tell that Matthew was thinking hard on what to do next. There were too many floors and whatever Ike's group wanted they could have had it done by now, so we had to act and think fast or we would lose our chance.

"Splitting is no option." Matthew said out loud as if he read my mind; actually I was sure that he could tell by reading my face "Remember what Robert said, it's too early to do that yet."

"We have to do something!" Ash complained as he tried to come up with something himself "If we can't find them, why don't we call them?"

We all stared at him; his suggestion seemed crazy, but Snake seemed to understand what he really meant.

"A decoy." Snake explained "We can trick them, by showing one of us and force them to come to that one, and then we can make a surprise assault."

"No one is going to be a decoy!" Matthew protested.

"Someone is going to be, alright." Snake replied "And it's going to be me."

The focus on the stairs was set on Snake, six pairs of eyes set on him, impressed by what could be bravery or recklessness. Snake only gave a look back towards Maquiel, and even while looking towards her I could tell that that particular look was meant to Samus.

"She doesn't want you to do so." Maquiel clarified.

"Can you shape shift?" he asked "And let her talk for herself?"

Maquiel shared a quick look with Matthew and he seemed to agree. Maquiel shape shifted into Samus, covered in the power suit. I could tell that it was the actual Samus because as soon as it got near to Snake she punched him in the waist; Maquiel would have hit him too, but she used to hit in the face, Samus instead always hit Snake in the waist so that he wouldn't interrupt, because he would lose air by that punch.

"What are you thinking, moron?"

Yep, that was Samus alright… when she spoke she was usually mad. It wasn't up until this point when I realized how many things in common Samus and Maquiel shared.

"Using you as a decoy? Do you want to die? Do you want to hurt me?"

"That's just a good outcome from it." Snake replied laughing weakly, still trying to recover air from the hit "Look, I still can't understand why you joined these humans, they are all flawed, they are stupid, reckless, and they trust too much." He then looked at Matthew "No offense, but you always seemed rather naïve despite your intelligence."

"Non taken." Matthew said sighing.

"The point is that I can't see what you see in them." Snake explained "I have to admit it, Robert has guts and sense, but he is a kid; Matthew and Maquiel are kids as well, they all look to what it seems to be a bright future, and I can't put my trust into that, because it doesn't seems real to me, life is not like that, it's something I understood after a long time, however you are with them. That's the reason why I'm here, if someone like you trust them then there's gotta be hope, there's gotta be a good reason, why is it Samus?"

Samus remained silent; we all wanted to interject, to talk, I myself wanted to say all what I felt for Melanie and how I trusted that this group could lead us to victory, however I knew it wasn't my place, and so Matthew understood, he more than any of us wanted to speak up, to tell him everything, to put him on his place, still he knew it was something Samus had to do.

She finally spoke up after a minute of silence, and she took of her helmet, revealing her blue eyes and her beautiful blond hair.

"You won't understand it Snake." She said with ease "I know you, and that's why I know you won't, I myself didn't get it at first. I remember you were pissed at me when I "betrayed" the smashers. Mario, Fox and I were able to understand something about the humans back then that nobody else could, and it was that we are just like them."

We all opened our eyes wide. I was able to come to that conclusion myself after spending so much time with Melanie, but to hear that from Samus… she seemed always so cold hearted, so closed, she almost never spoke of things like this, and now… even Snake was speechless, and he seemed to be trying to speak, he wanted to interject, but he couldn't find the words.

"Maquiel is a lot like me… but very broken, very tense and sad at times, yet there is a very bright energy in her, she is a good girl. Don't get me wrong Snake, I do not believe we may achieve victory, I see that as a very hard thing to do, although not impossible. The thing is that I love this girl as my little sister, and I'm going to protect her. I'll be always for her as I know she is there for me. I'm sure Matthew has the same relationship with Mario, as Robert has with Yoshi, and maybe even Salaric and Meta Knight. When I betrayed you back then I didn't know Maquiel, I just thought I wanted to meet more people, to know that side of the world I never came to pass by, and it was the best choice I ever made. This girl is special to me, and that's why I know you won't understand it, because there is no one for you. And I'm sorry, I know you still feel something for me, and I do as well, but we will never…"

Snake went for it; he kissed Samus with no farther hesitation. I thought I would have to grab Matthew in order to contain his anger, but it wasn't the case. He cast his eyes aside; he understood Snake was kissing Samus, not Maquiel, and that it wasn't his place to interject, but it was his bride to be body anyway, and there was a side of him that wished to beat to a pulp Snake. Or that's what I could tell by his eyes, and the left arm grabbing the right arm to avoid hit Snake with the fist he already made.

When Snake finally broke the kiss he looked Samus in the eyes.

"You are right." He said "I won't understand how a strong woman like you fell for this brat. However that doesn't change our history. I got bored of being away from you, that's why I chose to help you. I don't care if we succeed or not, I do not believe in victory, no matter what side I'm on, I just want to enjoy what little time we might have left."

"Snake…"

"So if you want to help this girl, do so." Snake concluded "But I'm going out with a blast, I'm going to do something, and so I know I'm the best to be the decoy, because I don't trust in victory. So you better show me wrong, and then if the kids succeed and make this a better world, then I'll have you out of that girl's body, to have you for me, as these children will need power no more."

It was a very rough way to say "I love you", but it was Snake's way and it made Samus shed a tear, something I thought I'd never see. She cleaned it fast and then she nodded.

"Maquiel will be taking back her body now."

And so she did; Maquiel shape shifted back into her usual self and she seemed shocked. She was listening to everything in the dark, and she didn't seem to know what to say. However Matthew knew exactly what to say.

"Do as you want."

The eyes passed to be focus on Maquiel to be on Matthew now, who was leaning on the wall next to the door to the tenth floor.

"There's no way to convince you to do otherwise, besides you don't have intention to follow our commands any longer as I can see."

"You are very sharp Matthew." Snake commented "Please, show me that I'm wrong."

"Don't worry about it, I will." He said "And there's something I have to say. This time is ok, you were talking to Samus, but it was still Maquiel's body and if you ever kiss her again I'll rip your guts out."

Snake started laughing at the comment, and still he knew that Matthew was serious.

"I get." He said strangely happy "Now, let's pull this off."

* * *

><p>"Everything will be just fine, honey."<p>

"Don't leave me."

"I would never"

She held my hand tight as the doctors gather around us. I was never so afraid of something in my life, and I could say that because I didn't remember most of it, and what I remember was awful. Now that out child was coming I knew the truth could never come out, she could never know what I really was. I wanted to be the man next to her, because I loved her more than anything in the world.

"_Lies always find their way to surface._" Meta Knight said in my mind "_However, if what we need to keep her next to us is a world of lies, I shall slain truth._"

I had a sad smile at the thought; it was nice to know that Meta Knight had my back (something Sonic never did), but it was still a heavy burden, and it was a lot harder now that I was about to be a dad.

"Here he comes!" the doctor announced.

And then it happened. I heard him crying. He was covered in placenta, he had his eyes closed, he moved his body and cry out loud as if he was announcing he was alive, and as soon as I saw him I knew there was nothing more precious in this life that this little boy. The nurse handed him to me, and he kept crying, but as soon as he opened his eyes and saw me he seemed to calm down a little, as he knew I was his dad.

"_That's… that's the most beautiful boy I've ever seen… that boy is… he must live, he must be happy…_"

I laughed and shed some tears as I held him tight and then I showed him to her mother, who took him on her arms. As soon as she looked at him she realized how dumb she was, hoe reckless she had been while being pregnant and her face was covered in tears.

"I'm sorry sweetheart…" she said heart broken "I was so stupid… how could I ever put you in so much danger?"

The boy reached his little hands up and he took one of Sophie's fingers and one of mine. We both shared a look and we both laughed as tears came down and the boy started to cry again.

"I love you." I said while rubbing his little head.

"_I'll protect this boy with my life._" Meta Knight declared "_I swear that my blade will not weaver, that I will bestow my life to this boy in order to keep him safe."_

Meta Knight's oath made me feel calm; he loved this kid as his own child, he was after all the son of the woman he loved. And as I sat next to them and Sophie started breastfeeding, I knew that no matter what my past was, no matter what I would find out, this kid would be always my priority. Now it was no surprise that Vincent's love for Matthew never died, the love I was feeling right now was something I never felt before, and it was wonderful. It suddenly all had sense, fighting, risking my life, all was just so that I could share this moments with Sophie, all so that I could protect this child.

* * *

><p>Things went down as Ash proposed. Snake attracted Ike's group to the fifth floor. We were all hiding in rooms surrounding the floor as we waited for them to come. And they did.<p>

Ike was the first to make an entrance, and he was followed by Sheik and Mewtwo, something very weird; Sheik was on Pit's side and Mewtwo on Wolf's side, it seemed that after the last two months their loyalty changed. I held my sword tight.

"So you finally come to us Snake." Ike said.

"Those kids were slowing me down."

"I can imagine." Sheik said "You'll be finding this side particularly better fitting. You never knew what to expect with Pit, Ike instead is very clear about his goals."

"They were not mine." Ike corrected "It's all thanks to Ganondorf; we have to honor his memory."

"_It's kind of an irony._" Mewtwo telepathy could be heard in the air, which was weird, did he know we were around? I couldn't tell "_He wanted Melanie to be Palutena's host and he got killed by her. We have half of our plot finished._"

"What's the other half?" Snake asked.

"Tabuu and Palutena have an amazing power, beyond our imagination, but the need the fitting bodies for the purpose we have for them." Ike explained "While Matthew, Gabriel and Maquiel could have been used, they are strong enough to make the conflict eternal; that was what Pit wanted, to make an eternal conflict so that he could rein in chaos. I don't want that; Melanie and Robert are not that strong, but the can host them, they can be vessels, and once they are trapped in those vessels we can manipulate them. What Ganondorf pursed was the revival of our lost allies and the final alliance of the smashers, in other words, to make Earth Zero World and have the alliance rein over people."

I was shocked, and I was sure everyone else shared that sensation. None of us knew Robert was a candidate for being Tabuu's vessel, and none of us knew the intentions behind it. And while it sounded noble I could just not excuse Melanie being used for that purpose. I just hoped Ash, Lucas and Pikachu could see it the way that I did, while I actually had a hard time trusting Snake, for once I thought he would agree with them, but it didn't happen.

"That's a child dream!" Snake replied and I opened my eyes wide open.

"How dare you call it a childish dream?" Sheik replied offended "We are near to achieve it!"

"Life is not like that." Snake replied "And in the end you have to fight for what you have around you, not for a utopia!"

"_Let me kill him, Ike._"

"Your death, Snake…" I could hear how the sword was being drawn "Won't be in vain; you'll be reborn and you'll join us."

"You are missing something."

"What?"

"The "X" factor."

I kicked the door as soon as I heard the code word and my sword reached Ike's sword with ease, as Ash's Charizard took Mewtwo and flew with him to the stairs, while Ash followed them.

Snake jumped backwards, while Matthew and Maquiel appeared already shape shifted to assist me against Ike, however the corridor was very narrow and as soon our blades rejected each other, Matthew punched Ike on the face.

"We left a pending battle four years ago; it's time to finish it."

However there was no time for that; the building was shot by lasers and we all had to throw ourselves to the ground to avoid being hit. It was, without a doubt, an arwing.

Ike kicked me toward the room I came of and then he entered there fast, closing the door behind him. It was no trouble for Maquiel or Matthew to break it down, do the fact that they didn't come inside meant that they had actual troubles, probably Gabriel decided to show up in the worst timing.

"We were a family." Ike said pissed "Do you know why Marth went against you so pissed? Or why I left Wolf's side in the first place?"

I stood up and I stood in guard as I hear him out.

"When Roy died I knew I could not trust Wolf; sadly Marth wouldn't listen to me, but I knew that with Ganondorf I would be able to bring him to his senses, him and you. Do you remember? Roy, Marth, you, Ganondorf, Zelda, and I were close, we were a family! And then… you all shattered, and you are the worst! Hypocrite! You said you would go against the humans and you ended up protecting them!"

I smiled. I looked at him with ease, just like a very heavy burden was finally lifted.

"You don't want to fight me." I said "You could have killed me already, but instead you started talking."

"I want you to understand!"

"No, you don't want that." I corrected "You want to earn time so that you can come up with an excuse and go. Just like when Sonic never killed Matthew, you can't kill me."

"WHAT?"

The room was narrow, but there was a fair good square space in which I could move my blade with ease. Ike only blocked as we started the swordplay, and now I was the one talking.

"Matthew feared Sonic because he seemed to be about to kill him every time, and although he could have, he never did, because if he killed Matthew he would have nothing else to do, nothing besides dieing."

"Are you saying that I am holding back…? Because if I kill you, then I'll seek death?"

He laughed at my comment and then his blade seemed to make more pressure.

"DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH."

* * *

><p>Charizard grabbed Mewtwo tight and he threw him to the first floor, then I jumped to his back so that he could descend softly as we got of the stairs room and went back to the lobby. Mewtwo seemed rather pissed, and I couldn't blame him, after all we were both tired of fighting each other. How many times have we fought against each other? I lost count of the times.<p>

Pikachu covered himself in sparks to make a thunder tackle, but as it was expected, Mewtwo repelled him before he could touch him with psychic powers.

"I'm tired of this endless fight." I said "I know you don't want to fight me anymore than what I do."

"_You are right._" Mewtwo replied "_I'm indeed tired of this endless struggle, I have no loyalty to no side, I just tag along with Ike for survival, however it seems that you are not like me, you do have your loyalty set on a side._"

"Precisely." I answered out loud as I sent out Squirtle and Ivysaur "I'm loyal to a side, because I saw hope."

"_Hope?_" Mewtwo asked shocked "_How can you see hope in all this?_"

Pikachu, Charizard, Squirtle and Ivysaur looked all at me and I knew they were ready to this with me; it wasn't easy, however it was the way to end it. They were loyal to me, they trusted me and they always did as I said, because it was like we were just one. I could never forgive myself for being unable to save Lucario when I had the chance, however it wasn't too late.

"Robert is going to succeed, somehow." I said "And I realized long ago that when he would, then there would be no need for us."

"_So he would ditch all of you._"

"No, he wouldn't." Mewtwo stared at me puzzled "I mean that the world itself would not fit for us; the only way for us to get done with all of this is to die together."

I could see the fear on Mewtwo's eyes as he glared at me and my Pokemons.

"_Are you saying… that we were born to die?_"

"I'm saying that death is unavoidable," I corrected him "and I'll fight till I die, because when the moment of our death comes there will be no side anymore, just us."

"_I don't understand you… if you want to die, why fight?_"

"Because I have to." I said as our eyes met with flames of determination "Matthew, Maquiel, Melanie and Robert gave us a place to live, they gave us a side to believe in, and they gave us hope… I know we are powerless against Tabuu and Palutena, so the best I can do to pay them back is dieing in battle, and once I do I know I'll finally meet peace."

"_YOU ARE INSANE!_"

I smiled as he came against us, because I knew it was our last battle; I would die this day, I didn't know how then, but I was sure of it, and my departure, although painful, would be able to bring hope. And I could pay them back. In the end, Red could do something for the people around them, I could believe that.

* * *

><p>"Maquiel, are you ok?"<p>

The whole corridor was in flames, and it was hard to breather because of it. We need back up; there would be Gabriel's party incoming. I hated to do it, but I had to text Robert, even while being powerful enough to take them I could not be everywhere, Ash, Link, Lucas, Pikachu and Snake might need help. I tried to look around to see if there was someone in the corridor besides Maquiel, but there wasn't, I just heard the clash of swords and a small talk on the adjacent room. I was about to enter when I saw Wario coming through a broken window with a bomb in his hand.

"Drop it!" I said as I prepared to fight, however I had to be cautious or I could make it explode for him.

"You never knew where to put your trust boy." He said "And now it's time for me to fulfill my task."

"Task?" Maquiel asked as she stood up "What task?"

"We will stop the cycle, but to do so, one shape shifter must die, that's all that it takes."

"Matthew, watch out!"

Maquiel covered me with her suit, because before Wario's bomb exploded, the rooms next to us did explode and covered us in flames. I was barely burnt, I could control fire around us and avoid it to hurt us, and those I couldn't control hit Maquiel's power suit and could withstand it. However I was worried about Link in the next room, he took the brunt of it.

I could manage to make the flames disappear and then I took Link's wounded body that was sent towards us by the waves of the explosion. He had major burnt wounds in his body, second and third degree.

Ike got out of the room barely injured by the flames and he glared at Wario.

"Why?" he asked "Wolf is dead! You have no leader!"

"Oh, I have…" he said smiling "Fox has shown me the truth."

And faster than what our eyes could catch, Gabriel was in front of us in his Fox's shape in his hand had pierced Ike's chest.

"Ugh!" Ike coughed blood "Fox… how could you… be trapped in some kid's twisted mind?"

"You think I'm Gabriel, don't you?" he asked while a dark laugh escaped from his mouth "Do you remember when I was first assigned to hunt you down? Four years ago, before Wolf got Matthew… back then I knew one day I would rip your heart out."

And so he did; he took it out of Ike's body and we could see how it still beat for some seconds. It was a very creepy thing to see. We were shocked, and I held Link's body tight as I tried to figure out what Gabriel intentions were. He looked at me.

"But if isn't my ex-comrade Matthew and her bride to be Maquiel."

I opened my eyes wide, while I wondered how he knew that. Maquiel stood up fast and she spoke.

"Please Gabriel, whatever you are going to do, don't!"

"Aren't you happy I killed Ike?" he asked pretending to be shocked "Then, perhaps, I have to the rest of your enemies."

"Gabriel, DON'T!"

But it was too late; in a blink of an eye he was out of our sight and Wario threw the bomb towards us. I stopped it with telekinesis, still while handing it on the air it exploded; then I tried to contain the blast, but it trigger more and more bombs around the building, more flames that I could possibly control. Finally Maquiel took me in one arm and Link in another, trying to cover most of our body with her power suit and she ran towards the closet window and jumped.

As we fell the flames attached to us were extinguished by the wind that broke our bodies as we fell. I stopped our bodies before the impact on the ground.

* * *

><p>"Where are you taking me?" she asked faintly.<p>

"I'm sorry…" I said "I could not leave you alone, so I dragged you with me."

It was the biggest mistake of my life. She was in my back, a piggy ride, and she saw it before I could.

"The communication tower!" She pointed out "It's on flames."

It was indeed, and as we got close we saw that there were metal pieces flying away from the melting building, and there was also three pieces that fell before our feet.

"No…" I mumbled.

They were grey trophies; Ash, Pikachu and Lucas.

Melanie saw them and she felt a huge anxiety, she wondered if Link was alright as she felt our lost. I ran forward and we saw Matthew, Maquiel, and very, very burnt Link.

"Oh my god." I said.

Melanie had no words. She dropped from my back and she walked towards them, making sure they were alive by a mere look, probably taking a look to their souls. And as soon as she got to Link she noticed that the flask with Navii was broken.

"Navii is gone!" She said desperate "Robert, please! Help me!"

I was there at the double; I didn't know what to do, but I was waiting her to tell me, and when she did not I made my best to keep it together. I slapped Matthew and Maquiel until they regained consciousness.

"Robert…" Matthew said weakly.

"Who?" I asked full of rage "WHO DID THIS?"

"Gabriel…"


	6. The grudge

_**Author Note: **__Weird… writing through chapter 1 to 4 wasn't hard at all, and I have written chapters 7 to 13 with some of the same ease, but while writing chapter 5 (Hello is rough, Goodbye is peace), this one, and chapters 14 to 17 (17 counting the epilogue), I just find myself in a really difficult place. It's like I have very clear where the end is headed, I even know what the ending is, but it's hard to write, and this chapter is both the aftermath of the previous chapter and a bridge towards what is coming next. It is like I'm feeling that I know that I'm making the difference between the previous idea that I had for the series and what is really becoming, and it's really hard to see it coming to an end. I do my best in every chapter, but this time has been extra difficult, I erased it many times, like nothing is able to fully satisfy me, but after a lot of struggle I managed to write something I find convincing, something I find like going along with what has been established so far. Sorry I extended this author note more than usual, but I wanted to share this with you, because I'm sure those who also write understands this feeling, and so I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters and the closure. Thanks for reading, and let's keep it to the end._

* * *

><p><strong>The grudge<strong>

Melanie was trembling as she stared at Link's almost lifeless body; we all knew he wouldn't make it. Ash, Pikachu and Lucas were all gray trophies now, just like Peach, Snake disappeared, but Link lay next to us, in Matthew's bed. Navi seemed to get lost in middle of the explosion and would disappear once he died. The only upside was that Ike's party was done; after we started carrying Link's body, Maquiel was able to spot Ike in the middle of the rubble, with his chest open and he became ashes joining the ones along the building. The rest of the smashers were done as well, grey trophies lying in our house.

It wasn't easy for Melanie to see Link like this; she held his hand and she prayed for him to stay. It made it hard for me to look at it, I remembered that Melanie was the only one who always managed to keep us together, she was the glue that held the group with her smile, and now her face was filled with tears and sorrow.

"My… lady…" Link mumbled.

He made a sign indicating us to come closer. Salaric was with the baby in the other room, and Sophie staid back so that we could get closer. Matthew and Maquiel seemed very affected by this, but I could tell they weren't like me; I was sad that Link was about to die, however I was devastated because of Melanie's face. She tried to be strong, but she couldn't, she… I hated it! I hated seeing her like that, so hurt, so sad, so unhappy, I wanted to make her smile, I wanted to be enough to make her happy. And just like if he read my thoughts, Link grabbed my wrist and he stared at my eyes.

"Take care of her." He said weakly "Don't ever leave her alone…"

He said the same thing to Matthew and Maquiel, but the fact that he said that to me first made me chill. Did he know what I was feeling right now? Was he expecting me to fill his role? There was a side of me happy about that thought. _Idiot! There's nothing to be happy about this… Just look at Melanie, her brightness is all covered in a blank of sorrow now. _I cared about her, a lot, I could tell as much, but I wasn't able to figure out, at the time, what I was truly feeling towards her.

Melanie's eyes met with Link's and they both shared a smile for last time as she went forward for a kiss. Then it happened; at the very moment their lips were about to join Link passed away.

"No…" Melanie said crying "I… I couldn't even kiss him goodbye…"

And she broke crying in his brother's shoulder. I stepped backwards so that Sophie could walk forward to hug her. Maquiel also hugged her; they covered her with their love. Her mother, her brother and her best friend; I was just in their way, I was just a mere observer with no role there… it made me sad, I felt like I was totally helpless there so I left the room.

I closed the door behind me silently so nobody would notice I left. A tear passed by my face and I cleaned it fast.

"Crying is not going to make it good Robert, suck it up." I whispered to myself as I felt how a whirling of feelings tried to overwhelm me. "They are all gone…"

It was my fault; I gave the order to go there while knowing that they were overpowered. We lost our allies, the smashers that have been like part of this strange like family we created, and we lost Link, the one Melanie loved. I felt like disappearing, I wanted to go away, to be able to erase my existence so all this feelings, all the pain I caused could go away.

"_If you disappeared I would be really sad._" Yoshi said trying to comfort me "_And if you never existed, I might have been dead by now._"

Would he? There was no way to know, I was sure about one thing: I screwed it badly, and I could never make the same mistake again. Now we were lonelier than ever, there were just Salaric, Matthew, Maquiel and me. Melanie would not be returning to the battlefield and Sophie was a mother now, so we were counting on just four fighters. It would be hell.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Two weeks later<strong>_

After Link's death he became another grey trophy, and the house became silent. There was no need to fight yet, the sunset warriors were done for, once and for all, and all that was left was Gabriel and his minions, which were standing by. We were in no condition to strike or to try talking him out of his madness yet, we were mentally weakened, and we wanted to keep an eye on Melanie. There were plenty vaccines, but the time would come eventually when they could be running out and we would probably need to make a raid on Zero World again, however we had no intentions on going there soon.

We were hanging out around Melanie's room; Robert was at the door with his look cast aside, trying not to bother, while Matthew and I hugged Melanie. She was barely able to crawl out of bed, she was absolutely destroyed, and I could understand it, I didn't know how I would react if I ever lost Matthew.

The doorbell rang out of the blow.

"They're already here!" I said out loud.

After the communication tower was destroyed, the city used a back generator in a hidden central, which was meant to be used in case of any catastrophe, which just happened to be the case. And as soon as the lines were back, my mother and I shared a very long conversation over the phone. This happened a week ago; I tried to convince her not to come back to Chile, but it was pointless. As there was no way to stop her I asked her to come by Matthew's place and I gave her the address.

I broke the hug leaving Melanie on her brother's arms while I ran towards the door. I saw Robert a bit confused, he wasn't convinced of my decision to invite them over.

"Why the hell would you call them to be around the battlefield?"

"It's not like that." I replied immediately "Sarah always knew about this battle and now that Pit is gone they were able to travel back to the country. Pit always managed to keep them out of range while he was alive, how? I don't know, but three months has gone by since Pit died and since then it was up to me to stop them from coming, however I could not keep them away forever, and as there was no way to convince them not to come this time, I asked them to come here, to this place, so that I could keep an eye on them."

Robert seemed to be about to reply, but he remained silent and he nodded. He seemed upset, but not by this. He was still carrying the burden over the smashers' death

"It's not your fault." I said while I left the room "It's their fault."

_He is just like Matthew. _Both he and Matthew loved to take the blame on anything that happened around those who were around them, but Link, Ash, Pikachu, Lucas and Snake, all of them knew very well what they were getting in to, even I and Matthew were ready to accept casualties, after all this was a war, and Robert made the right call; Ike's party was gone for good, and we knew what they wanted to use Palutena and Tabuu for. For all intents and purposes, we succeed. Or that's what I wanted to believed.

I reached the front door and once I opened I ran towards the fence to open the door that lead to the street.

"Mom, Sarah, Peter!" I greeted

They all hugged me at the double. It had been such a long time, four years since the last time we had physical contact, and it felt so right to have my family back. And at the very moment I felt that immense happiness, Link's death came to my mind and it covered me with both sorrow and fear, but I hid it, they couldn't see it right away.

"May we go inside?"

"Yes, yes!" I said.

"Sis, why are you wearing that ring in your finger?"

_Oh shoot…_ I thought, I hadn't told them by the time and I knew the time came to tell them about my engagement. I was hoping to do so after the battle.

"That's because I'm… engaged."

I could not believe my mother's expression; she was a beautiful fifty old lady, almost no wrinkles in her face, which was very round, but not fat, she had the same hair as I had, and the same dark green eyes, also she was a bit higher than me. That woman always had a serious and kind look towards me, no matter what. This was the first time I ever saw her so shocked.

Sarah grew up to be alike Melanie, just with her black curly hair, a thinner face, a bit higher, and she wore sport outfits just like I did. She was also shocked.

Peter seemed to be the only one holding it together. He was a fine fifty old man, 6 feet tall, a bit pale, and with a bit square like face and blond hair. He held mom's waist as she seemed about to pass out.

"I know it's sudden, but…"

How could I explain them all that we've been through? How could I tell them that I fell in love with a guy, which I pursed him for four years, and then I actually got into his soul and brought him back to our group? No, there was no way to explain that to mom, Sarah maybe, after all she was already aware of my struggle, but surely not mom and Peter.

"We've been dating for almost five years and I know he is the one." I said at last; it wasn't a total lie, I was just not telling everything.

"Honey, we don't even know the guy yet." Mom said trying to restore her composure.

"This is his house… I've been living here all along."

"Oh, honey!" Mom said while sighing; she knew me and she understood that it was pointless to discuss it, so she just breathed in and out and said "Ok, if we are to meet your groom to be we have to get in first."

"You already know him mom." I said "Do you remember Matthew Stryder? The red haired guy from school and the dojo?"

"No!" she said excited and impressed as she crossed the yard "So they still live here!"

"Excuse me?" I asked as I walked along with her.

"I thought after all this time the Stryders moved out of this place!" she explained as she opened the front door "It's curious…" for an instance she seemed to doubt about what she was going to say next, but she did anyway "your dad was a very good friend of Matthew's dad." She said almost whispering.

"You are kidding." I said shocked.

I remembered how dad mentioned Vincent on his letter, but was he good friend with him? Were they all entangled in this? Obviously, and even Robert's father was in the middle of this. Our families were already involved, all of them entangled in this conflict somehow.

"Sophie!" Mom called out as she entered "It's me, Rachel!"

Mom didn't know all that happened in this place, she didn't know that at the time Sophie was breast feeding his newborn son, Alex. There was no reply, but Robert appeared from the stairs and mom jumped towards him.

"Why did you dyed your hair brown?" she asked as I face palmed "Red is a unique hair color! You shouldn't have done that!"

I face palmed; it had been years since mom saw Matthew, but to confuse him with Robert? I sighed.

"Mom, that's Robert… he is Matthew's best man."

Robert looked at me confused, and that look said something like "are you serious?"

I sighed again; I loved mom, she was like a superhero for me, she always fought for other people, she was a great cop, but she had no boundaries around people. She immediately laughed.

"Oh, sorry! You must be Samuel's son!"

"You knew my dad?" Robert asked.

Mom didn't reply, she didn't like to talk about Richard in front of Peter, but I knew that if she knew Robert's dad it was only because of him.

Robert looked at me with a severe and puzzled look; he surely wanted to figure it everything out. Then, he smiled at me and winked. That was very unusual on him.

"Maquiel." Robert said "Go get Matthew; it's about time he gets to know your family."

I walked down the stairs while Robert smiled and walked towards mom. I had a bad feeling about it.

* * *

><p>"So you knew my father." I said interested "Take a sit, all of you, there's no need to stand up."<p>

They did, while I stepped around, curious, seeking answers. My eyes were set on Rachel, Maquiel's mom, she might be the person who could tie the lose ends.

"I'm very sorry, I know how he ended up like." She said softly.

"It's been 15 years since that happened." I said calmly "I barely got to know him, I'd like to ask you some questions about him."

"Well, I don't actually know much of anything about him, I just saw him a couple of time."

"When did you meet?"

"Well, he was a friend of Maquiel's dad, they met in 1992, he came by the house one time and you were a baby."

I was shocked; they met each other the year I was born… then, were we all wrong? The smasher complot started back in the nineties? My curiosity pecked.

"They worked together… Ah!" she abruptly dropped the story, rather relieved "So that's Matthew!"

I looked back at Maquiel with a bit of anger, but I knew she couldn't delay Matthew's entrance for much longer. Her groom to be was nervous, it didn't take very much of a look to figure that out, he was sweating, his eyes were wide open and he didn't seem to find the right words to say once Maquiel's family got around him.

"Nice… to meet you…" Matthew said slowly "I'm Matthew Stryder… and I love Maquiel with my soul, I'd never hurt her, I swear to god. I… I had been meaning to meet you."

"Wow, man you're so uptight." Peter said while placing a hand on his shoulder "Take it easy, we don't bite."

"Talk for yourself, Peter." Maquiel's mom said "I need to get to know my son in law. How long have you been engaged?"

"Three months."

"And in all this time you didn't have the guts to tell us!" she said out loud "Ok, I don't know you yet, but I expected more from you Maquiel, I thought you were braver."

_So that's why Maquiel always acted so manly… and I thought it was because I rejected her when we were kids… now I look at her mom and it all makes sense. _That woman had a very strong character, unlike his boyfriend, who seemed rather quiet and easy going. Well, I guess opposites attract, after all Matthew was smart and calm, while Maquiel was cheerful, energetic, and really reckless.

They sat Matthew in the couch and some kind of interrogation started. Maquiel's mom started asking countless questions, she wanted to know everything little detail about him.

Then Sophie climbed up the stairs with Alex on her arms and Salaric following him.

Rachel stood up and she walked towards her.

"What a beautiful baby boy…" she commented and then she seemed to start losing color.

"Don't worry." Said Sophie giggling as she read Rachel's mind "This is my son, Alex."

"Oh thank god!" she said relieved "It's that I had too many news today, and a grandson could have actually inflicted me a heart attack."

"He is two weeks old." Sophie explained "This is the father."

"Wasn't he your math teacher Salaric, Maquiel?" she asked turning aside to look her daughter.

"Yes, he is also Matthew's stepfather now."

"So you got married!" She said while shaking Sophie's free hand "Congratulations! I knew it wasn't easy with Vincent's…"

"Yeah, let's not talk about it." Sophie replied with a forced smile "It's been a while since we saw each other Rachel."

I stood up and I walked towards them, there were many things I wanted to know, and I wasn't able to keep it inside anymore.

"Sorry to interject." I said "But I really need to ask this… you knew what my dad did?"

"I really don't know much about it." Rachel said reluctant "Richard was very secretive about his work… but he once said something about checking on your dad after he was confined."

"But only close family can see him…"

"That's what I told him, but he said it was imperative… it was work related and it was also related to Vincent."

Everyone had their eyes set in Rachel; she felt uncomfortable talking about this next to Peter, but he showed himself supportive and he nodded. We were all waiting to see where this lead.

"He traveled back and forth to Japan time to time around 2002 and 2003, by that time we were already split up, but one day he came by the house, claiming that he had to see Maquiel…"

Maquiel was shocked; apparently it was the first time she heard about this, and then she turned aside.

"Maquiel was in school at that time, so I let him in, just to make things clear, and before I could talk he started talking about seeing Samuel, he wanted me to make him a warrant so that he could go in. He said…"

And it this very point, something inside me told me that what was about to be said would change everything forever. And it did, I was right. Salaric gulped, just like he was able to feel that too.

"That they had to take care over Vincent's death."

Our eyes opened wide open. Maquiel seemed about to faint, Matthew seemed like he was about to suffer a stroke, Sophie was trembling so much that I thought that she would eventually drop Alex and Salaric started sweating a lot. I was standing still, shocked, astonished, as Richard's letter started to make more sense to me.

Rachel seemed uncomfortable and she wanted to stop talking; however Sophie manage to keep it together.

"What happened next?" She asked.

"I didn't believe him… I thought he was insane and I told him to go away, but then he said that I would have to play a role as well. That the culprit could be found in August 23rd 2003."

My eyes opened wide while Maquiel and I shared a shocked look; we both knew what it meant, it was the date set on Richard's letter. We both glared at Salaric puzzled. That man… who just had Sophie's baby killed Matthew's and Melanie's father. I started feeling sick, and Maquiel didn't seem able to keep it together. I stepped forward and I grabbed Salaric collar.

"Tell me you don't remember a thing." I said trembling.

I noticed he was even more nervous, anxious; Sophie was about to interject, Matthew about to ask, but I spoke first when he turned his eyes aside.

"Look at me!"

And then he could tell I've figured it out. He shed a tear as his broken voice spoke.

"It was because of me."

Matthew's eyes immediately were filled with rage and he pushed me away as he grabbed Salaric's collar.

"What did you say?" he asked shocked.

"I sent Lex to kill Vincent. It was… my command… I'm…"

Matthew punched him on the face, and then he pounded him to the ground to keep hitting him. Everyone stepped backwards; the environment became tense as we all tried to figure out what to do. Matthew just kept punching him.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he said with rage "I SHOULD KILL YOU!"

And I knew he would do so eventually so I decided that I had to break them apart, after all there was a lot of information Salaric might have about all of this. I grabbed Matthew by his back and I pulled him back.

"GET OFF ME, ROBERT!"

Then I noticed that Sophie left Alex on Maquiel's arms as she started crying and she crossed the door to the yard.

Salaric stood up, beaten up, as Matthew tried to break through my arms and kill him, I even thought he was about to shape shift, so I was forced to knock him out, by pressing a mussel around the shoulder. Matthew fell unconscious next to us as Maquiel glared at Salaric with deadly eyes, her hands became fists as she seemed about to kill him as well, but she contained.

Rachel seemed to finally grasp some kind of understanding on all of this and she talked.

"I should put you under arrest."

"Mom, please wait." Maquiel said with rage "This man owes that woman an explanation… and to all of us too, but he needs to talk to her first."

"He is a murderer! And he confessed!" Rachel protested "You can't expect me to…"

"_It's ok_."

It was the very first time I used telepathy to this purpose; as Rachel didn't know I had this power, I tried to act as a voice inside her head to convince her to do as I wanted.

"_If Maquiel says it's ok, then believe in her, your daughter is smart and strong, so trust her._"

I said something similar to Peter and Sarah so they wouldn't interject, and Salaric walked to the door, to talk to Sophie. Rachel seemed to follow my command and she sat in the stairs, trying to figure out what to do or say, while Maquiel held Alex gently, a poor boy born from a terrible father.

* * *

><p>I could tell she was pissed… no, she wasn't only pissed, but also shocked, sad, disappointed, furious, and deceived. It was a big feeling cocktail all around her as she remained sat on the grass. I sat next to her.<p>

"How long have you got your memory back?"

"Around three months."

"And in all this time… you thought you could hide it?" she asked with mixed emotions "I mean it was a matter of time! With Robert's board and Richard's letter I would figure it out sooner or later."

"I feared how you would react."

"You should… but it would have been easier if you told me."

I wasn't sure about that, still I knew it would make me feel less guilty. She was about to break into tears and cry, but she held it together; she didn't want to show herself vulnerable in front of me.

"Who are you Salaric Austin?" she asked puzzled "I thought I knew you… of course, I never did, you said you didn't want to remember your past, that you wanted to start over… and I tried, I really did try to forget the insecurity of being in a relationship, I cast away my grief and I started falling for you, but this… this is more than what I can take."

She took a small break to let a single tear fall, and take a deep breathe while her hands grabbed the grass with might, pulling it out from the earth.

"You killed the father of my children, you know what is that?" she asked a bit furious, a bit confused "Matthew and Melanie grew broken, I was never enough for the two of them, and I had to keep my whole sadness inside, never telling anyone how much his death affected me, how much I wished it played out different and that he would cross our door house with his broken soldier smile and his true happy look at staring at his children… you took that away from me."

"I'm not that man anymore." I muttered weakly.

"Then, why is that the man I'm seeing right now?" she asked hurt "I know you are not that man anymore, but this… I have the son of the man who killed the father of my children… it just sounds outright bad to say it!"

"Sophie…"

"I can't stand it!" she said finally losing it; she shed more tears and she pushed me away "Now that man is everywhere! I can feel him in my all around me, and I don't want to be another second in this house, I can't show myself to Alex any longer, and I don't want to be with you!"

That last one statement broke my heart; it was like I could hear it shatter into million peaces. She just stood up and she started walking away from me, back to the house she didn't want to go in.

"It changed everything!" she stated.

It did; I would soon know true despair, despair it would have been saved if I just told her this sooner, however it was too late, and I was just able to stare at the sky as tears fell towards my face. I shape shifted into Meta Knight and I flew away from the house as I knew I would never be welcome there again. I just wished to vanish along with the night.


	7. The last day on life's residence

_**Author Note: **__This chapter is the sad conclusion for the events of the previous chapter. I hope you like it; it's quite a strong one, I would say._

* * *

><p><strong>The last day on life's residence<strong>

Since the very beginning of this day I knew it was over for me, that it would be the last day I would walk around the living. Yet it was fine by me now, my baby was in good hands, and he would be better off my hands. I was such a terrible mother, and after realizing who his father was, I just… I just couldn't leave that poor boy on our hands stained with blood and sins. So I decided to go all out, armed to the teeth as I used to when I was about to fight, but no matter how well armed I was I knew it would end bloody for me. And it was fine, I already came to accept it, as I walked down the street on this dark night I realized how much bad I've done. At the very least, I could go down taking some smashers with me, trying to do something good, a very little redemption for all my mistakes and sins. I smiled as I crossed through the streets, walking alongside with the endless buildings around me, heading towards were Gabriel was. His rage, his whole anger and hatred would go down into me. I would pay for killing his mother.

I stood in front of a big square like gray building. I could sense the smashers here and I knew that Gabriel was waiting for the others to fall into his trap from here to some hours, yet he was about to be surprised, because I was the only one falling into his web.

I kicked the door and it opened as I reached for my hand gun. I walked carefully to make no noise as I moved forward, looking into every direction, which was a bit pointless as the lights were out, but I remained with my senses sharp so that I could hear any single step. The first I heard was on my right; I turned around and I shot five times. The gun had a silencer, so I expected no one to hear it. A corpse fell, those five bullets hit only vitals spot, and because I saw the shape of the smasher I shot. It was a kid like shape, probably Ness. I sighed; he, just like most of them, were manipulated and brought to work by Tabuu and Palutena, Gabriel was just their marionette controlling other smashers as other puppets. As I walked forward I began to understand what this whole world was about. The fact that so little people became active when the conflict arose it was weird, but then it became clear to me… there was someone who was only involving some certain people on this, the people he or she found worth being part of the conflict. Those who were in the conflict had an identity; those who weren't were just faceless human beings. Who could have done all this? Was it really as we though it was? I knew there was something beneath our layer of reality.

Then I heard some other footsteps and I had to stop thinking and act quickly. I hid inside a box as someone passed through. I quickly drew out the shotgun that was adjusted in my belt, loaded and ready to kill is something went wrong. My heart beat fast, what if it was Gabriel? I was sure even a shotgun wouldn't be able to take him down, and if he reflected it I was done for. I remained quiet as I heard the footsteps ended, did he spot me?

"Fox, you are strange lately."

I didn't have to see their souls in order to recognize them; the voice already told me that Gabriel was tagging along with a concerned and scared Falco.

"What do you mean, Falco?" he asked tranquil "Everything is normal, I just took command after Wolf's departure, it's our duty to keep his job as his underlings, right?"

"No, it's not that." Falco replied "You are… very different lately, you wouldn't eat, sleep and you only talked to me when it's about assignments."

"I'm sorry Falco, I've been busy." He replied with a creepy voice that remained me the voice of her mother "I know you've waited too long for the day when Gabriel died so that we could do some sharing, but right now there is no time."

"Is he really dead?" Falco asked concerned and terrified "Gabriel?"

No, he wasn't. If someone could be dead, it was Fox, Gabriel's scent was completely overwhelming Fox's, which was by now a very tiny light in a sea of darkness. Gabriel just convinced himself that he was Fox; he was trying to escape of his identity so that the pain would be no longer there. I felt pity for both of them. I could sense how Fox's tiny light struggled to bring Gabriel back to his senses, but there was so much pain, so much sorrow, and hatred… all of them caused by me.

"Yes, he is." Gabriel replied "So worry not, we'll be a family again when all this is over, and from now on I need someone I can rely on, and that's you."

"Fox…" Falco said moved "I've been waiting for this day… I want it to be over with, and…"

It was merciless. I had to cover my mouth in order to avoid screaming. Gabriel's road pierced Falco's guts. Gabriel stood him up in the air as Falco slid down the road, leaving it stained on his blood.

"Why…?" Falco asked weakly.

"Your heart will make my task easier." Gabriel commented "Do not worry Falco; we'll meet on the next life."

"You are… not Fox…"

"Yes I am. I'm not the Fox you remember though."

It was too cruel, too merciless, and too gross. I could barely stand it, I wanted to come out of the box and shot him in the head, but I knew that at the moment I do that I would die. I had to close my eyes, but I could still sense how Falco's heart was being devoured by Gabriel, and I could hear how his fangs devoured it with might and taste. I was afraid; I was next to a monster. I reached for the trigger and I waited for an opening. I could see his head even with my eyes closed, and I was ready to take him unguarded. I got the opening and as soon as I shot I also jumped to the left. I made the right call, because after I got off the box by the jump I was able to see that the bullet was rejected, and if I stayed still it would have killed me.

"Nice try and nice call." Gabriel commented as he cleaned some blood of his snout. "If you didn't jump you'd be dead by now."

I gave just a quick glimpse towards Falco's body. His chest was open and his eyes were lifeless, it was really scary. I could barely look at the shapes well, because of the lack of light, yet I could still sense their souls and so I could see where they were. I raise the shotgun and headed it towards Gabriel's heart.

"It's incredible the power of a heart." He commented "So powerful… and yet it can't contain the sorrow."

The fact that he was talking meant that he didn't care to kill me right away, which was a good thing for me, yet I knew I was done for.

"I always knew you killed her." Gabriel said "If you had a mother I would have killed her so you could have felt my pain, but sadly she is dead already, and your children are not easy to kill."

"What do you want from me?"

"For a long time I asked myself the same question, what I wanted from you?" he said as he walked around me "I wanted to kill you, I wanted to harm you, I wanted to make you suffer, but aside from relieving me a bit, it wouldn't do much, right? Vendettas never end well."

"Then, what?"

"That's the point… I'm not very sure myself." He said while a laugh escaped through his teeth.

I reached a hand gun, but as expected Gabriel hand was faster than mine, he grabbed my wrist with his right hand and the left one threw the pistol away, as we stared at each other.

"You are quite brave, powerless and still you arm yourself with weaponry, trying to protect your children; nobody can say you are a bad mother."

It was faster than I expected; the metallic sound from a sword slash on mid air that broke the space Gabriel and I shared. I jumped backwards as Meta Knight stood in front of me, standing very still as his sword pointed towards Gabriel, who seemed to be very pleased with this development. I just couldn't stare at him, even in the shape of Meta Knight I knew it was still Salaric in there, I knew it was that man.

* * *

><p>"<em>I've lost enough people already.<em>" Meta Knight said with sorrow "_Salaric… We can't let him win, after I lost Kirby… I just can't lose her._"

"Neither can I." I replied "So let's end this."

I rushed towards Gabriel and brandished the sword, but he stopped the blade with his bare hand, without being even slightly hurt.

"What?" he asked "Is this some kind of joke?"

I jumped backwards and I stared at him a bit frightened; I didn't expect it to be an excruciating attack, but I did expect to be blocked with his road, and then he just stopped it with his hand… how powerful could he have gotten in two months? He didn't even seem to care to fight me, so I just thought that I had to try some strategy. I started by using the Drill Rush, an that attack wasn't fast enough to catch Gabriel in middle of it, so as soon as it ended I changed to a shuttle loop, I managed to do a rising upper slash cutting superficially Gabriel's hand, then flipped around into a glide so that I could recover, but then I felt Gabriel's fist on my face; I was pounded on the floor and the mask seemed to shatter as Gabriel quickly drew his gun.

"Attack like you mean it coward!" he yelled "Or should I end you right now?"

Before the gun fired I used the dimensional cape and as I covered myself on it I took the chance to teleport above him and then brandish my sword against his neck. If he took another second to block it I would have killed him. He smiled on the process.

"Now we're talking."

I heard gun firing; the bullets were reflected, just as Sophie could expect and she side jumped so that the reflected bullets wouldn't hurt her. She was waiting for the right chance to shoot him, so I had to give her that chance.

"_Our final smash can give her enough time!_"

A purple aura covered my body as I prepared to attack.

"_Fear our power!_" Meta Knight thought out loud.

I rushed towards Gabriel who waited for us to move; he was about to do something, I didn't know what, but I stood still and I ensnared him with a flip of the cape. While having him beneath my cape he did nothing, something strange, very weird for me to understand, however he was in my mercy; or so I thought.

As soon as I slashed I noticed that Gabriel hadn't moved an inch, which even while my final smash should have sent him flying upwards, he was still in front of me, and the brandish of my sword could only superficially cut his chest. He seemed disappointed.

"What?" he asked "Is that all you've got?"

I didn't know what to do next, so I just stepped backwards while thinking. The final smash was everything I had; I didn't know what else to do.

"_Bestow me your powers, quick! We have to do the final form!_"

"What powers?" I asked in my mind frightened "I have no powers…"

"_SALARIC! I CAN'T LOSE HER!_"

I understood, however I did not know what to do. He believed in me, and I wanted to believe in me too, but believing didn't make it true, not even while having a son waiting for us at home. I swore to god that I would bring her mother back alive, that we would somehow manage to work out my past and be a family. I would break that oath that day.

What happened next was out of my reach of understanding; Gabriel was about to kill me, I could tell it by his eyes, but before he could even think of attacking us, a blue spark crossed the air and Gabriel was sent backwards. That blue spark took shape in front of my eyes; it was Sonic.

"Sonic…" I muttered amazed.

"Haven't I told you to get stronger?" he asked pissed "You seem like the same to me."

Sophie ran towards me, while her gun still pointed at Gabriel who just pounded a wall; however her eyes were set in Sonic.

"Why?" she asked.

"How dare you leave your children behind?" Sonic asked pissed "You are the mother of three children Sophie, how could you risk your life like this?"

"Three? How do you know about Alex?" I asked to Sonic, and then I immediately realized the answer "Wait, have you been keeping an eye on us? Is that why we have not met any smasher until recently?"

"You can thank me later." Sonic said while staring at Gabriel "Now, he is strong and I'll need your help to beat him."

"I don't understand." Sophie said puzzled "I thought you hated us."

"We can chit chat as much as you want later, but now we have a bigger trouble." Sonic said coldly "Now, you need to put a bullet in that guy's head or heart, your call, Meta Knight and I will give you that chance."

"_Salaric, you can't mess up now._" He said to my mind "_I don't trust Sonic, but this might be our only chance to save Sophie, and I'm taking it, besides I don't want that bastard alive and near Alex._"

"Ok." I said out loud "Let's do it."

"You've talked too loud." Gabriel said while smiling and walking towards us "Bring it on! Let's see what you got!"

Sonic didn't hesitate, he rushed towards Gabriel at high speed and his first punched clashed with might against Gabriel's road, but then he started kicking and punching and high speed and Gabriel started blocking at that same speed, it was so fast that eventually it was hard to see them. However I looked, I looked closely trying to find an open spot in Gabriel's defense. I rushed towards him and I slashed in perfect timing, but it wasn't a lethal spot, it was merely his wrist. Then Gabriel hit me with the road and half of my face froze, as Sonic used me as a platform to jump and hit Gabriel's open face. He flipped to avoid the hit and then he used a flash dash and for a second he over speeded Sonic. The ice broke from my face and then I used the inter dimensional cape to teleport, and when I appeared at his back I tried to stab him on the heart, but as soon as my blade touched his skin he turned around with supernatural speed and he hit my face with one kick and sent me flying backwards. As I flew backwards Sonic took the chance to turn into Super Sonic and he flew towards Gabriel at light speed and he removed his deflector.

"Take this, you son of a bitch!" Sophie yelled.

Sonic held Gabriel's arms so he wouldn't escape and with perfect aim Sophie burst Gabriel's head; it was a shot gun bullet, and I saw his head exploding.

Sonic was covered in blood, and he dropped Gabriel's body in the floor as Sophie walked towards us, frightened, relieved, guiltily, but still somewhere happy to see me. I shape shifted back to my human self, she walked pass Sonic and she hugged me.

"We'll figure it out." She said "For Alex's sake…"

Those were her last words towards me, and what happened next was out of my reach of understanding. My eyes stared for just one second at Sonic whose body was suddenly clean from blood. Then he looked at me terrified.

"IT'S A TRAP!" He yelled "SALARIC, MOVE!"

He came towards us, but it was too late. I heard how Sophie's heart beat were getting weaker, as my eyes saw a road pierced in her chest. The road was about to reach me too, but then Sonic was fighting against the one who held the road, against Gabriel.

"No…" I muttered.

"_It can't be… we killed him, we killed him!_"

I didn't know what to do, I broke the hug as I removed the road, but as soon as I did I realized that it would make no good. It already pierced the heart; my clothes were covered in her blood and it was leaking around the floor. My eyes were burning, my hands were trembling as I held her lifeless body, and suddenly there was nothing. I felt empty.

"_NOOOOOOOO!_" Meta Knight yelled at my mind "_How? This can't be happening! I swore… I swore I would protect her… she was everything to me, after Kirby died I thought I could die as well, but there was her… she held me through everything…_"  
>I was empty, I had nothing… no, I had a son, a son that I could not raise on my own, not while knowing the kind of person I was. I could not take care of that kid on my own, I didn't want him to become me… with Sophie around it would have been different, we could have figured it out together… now, it was all over.<p>

And as I looked how Sonic and Gabriel fought I suddenly understood Sonic's feelings. He wished revenge because he had no reason to live, he was so full of the same grudge and sadness I was so that in order to avoid death he just focused on revenge, but he avoided accomplishing it, because as soon as he did, he would have no longer a reason to live, he would be filled with an emptiness greater than his grudge. I smiled; I understood it was over for me.

"_No!_" Meta Knight replied "_You have a son, a son I swore to protect… god damn it! He is like my son! I don't care what you feel, as long as I'm inside you…!_"

But he wouldn't be any longer; I smiled as memories came back to me. There was something I could do. I reached for my waist and then I pierced it with my hand, but no blood came from it, instead a purple aura came from it and within seconds I removed it from me, and then Meta Knight took shape in middle of the room, in front of me. He was puzzled.

"How?" he asked.

"I helped creating the shape shifters." I said "I prepared myself in case I needed to remove the smasher of a human soul, I'm special."

I laughed at that last word, "special", I was just empty and broken. Then I stared at Meta Knight with sadness as I reached towards the shot gun.

"Take care of Alex."

But then there were two hands on my wrist. One was Meta Knight's and the other was Sonic's. I looked around and I noticed that I couldn't get a glimpse on Gabriel.

"Don't kill yourself coward!" Sonic said.

"Didn't you want to kill me?" I asked "Go ahead."

He was about to reply the same old answer "I don't kill weaklings", but I kept talking.

"You cared about Sophie too, just like Meta Knight and I did. That day, back in the roof, you had plenty chances to attack her, but you never did. You cared about her." I smiled "But she is gone now… I imagine the despair you both feel, how much you want to disappear, and how you struggle not to fall in despair. So I need to ask you to take care of Alex…"

"Salaric, you know how much I've seen." Sonic said with anger "Do you think I can let you die like this? You wanted to redeem yourself, so go ahead and do it! Take care of your son and end this!"

But I couldn't… not without Sophie around, and I could not raise that child. I was sad, because I would never ever listen that boy cry again, or reach for me, I wouldn't see him grow up or anything, but it was for his best.

"Sorry guys. And thank you for everything."

I didn't hesitate; I reached the shot gun with my left hand. Sonic was fast enough to stop me, but I was able to paralyze him for a second with one touch, one of the things I prepared myself years ago in case it became necessary, and it was, in order for me to die. I pulled the trigger before Meta Knight or Sonic could stop me.

* * *

><p>And just like that he died. I was, once again, unable to save someone.<p>

Meta Knight was shocked, he hid his emotions through his mask, but I could feel them, there was a weird connection between us, but we could tell what the other was feeling after being inside of Salaric's body. He was hurt, too hurt, I knew how much, he would seek revenge towards Gabriel and find the emptiness I already found. I could not let that happen, he still had someone; he still had a chance to escape the emptiness.

"Don't seek revenge." I said "It is only a slowly and painful way to die."

"Who cares?" he said with rage "He killed Sophie! I should kill him."

"But you can't!" I yelled back "You are not strong enough! So if you want Gabriel dead do exactly as I'm going to say."

He looked back at me and I could tell he was shedding tears below that mask.

"Go back to Matthew's place, tell them about this. Matthew can and will kill Gabriel. You have to stay near Alex, for Sophie's sake, that's what she would wanted you to do."

He looked at me and once again we could understand each others feelings.

"You really cared about Sophie," it wasn't a question "And you kept and eye on us…"

"… Four years around Salaric made a lot of changes on me… changes I didn't want to accept… I knew how he was, and I tried to convince myself that he would always be that guy. But he wasn't. And eventually I came to share some of his feelings. Now Sophie is dead, and I can't even begin to describe how much rage is inside, I'm only keeping it together because I'm used to death."

But I was going nuts; the rage was so great that I only wanted to rip Gabriel's guts out.

"If I'm going to Matthew's place, what will you do?"

"I will keep him here, I'm going to win enough time for them to come, and when they do they can end him. Go! We talked more than enough time! I don't know why Gabriel withdrew, but I can tell he is coming back."

Meta Knight seemed reluctant about leaving me, he wanted to fight Gabriel as well, and still he understood that he had to go, especially because that baby Alex was now on his care. He didn't want to admit it, but I knew that he was his father as well, unless he felt he was somewhere inside. That would keep him alive; he would be the reason of why to keep fighting an endless battle.

It was curious, even while life will split us apart someday, we fight to delay it. Even I, who thought that this world was rotten and that I would not mind dieing, was now fighting to protect something. For a long time I cared about looking for a reason to live, and now I had it, but it was taken away from me. There was nothing that could contain me; I could let it all go against him.

"GABRIEL!" I shouted out loud "COME HERE TO DIE!"

This time I wasn't covered by the light of my final smash, this time I was surrounded by a great darkness and my whole body started turning black as I let the fear, the sorrow and the madness to take over my mind, creating a creature able to brutally kill his enemy. I was no longer Sonic; I was a nameless demon with lust of revenge.

When he finally showed up I rushed against him and I grabbed his face; our eyes met and he seemed to be shocked at my change, while I spread dark force around his face. It was like black flames just burnt some of his face's factions; however he didn't seem affected at all. He hit my waist with the road, still it made no damage, I wasn't feeling any pain. I laughed as I grabbed it and then I threw Gabriel away. He recovered in mid air, but I ran at high speed towards him, and I reached him within a split second to pound his face in the ground, then I started hitting his body countless times.

"How does it feels?" I asked "It's been a while since you were injured! But this is not enough… YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY SUFFER!"

I lost it; I was insane, drown in the sorrow, in my pain. I was so drown on it that I was merely able to think, merely able to make sense of whatever was happening, but I knew that I wanted to hurt him a lot, to torture him, and yet it wouldn't be enough, because you can't compare physical pain to the lost of your reason to live.

I was enjoying his pain, even if it was physical, and I grabbed his right ankle and twisted it on 180 degrees. He screamed with might and he kicked with his left leg. I stepped backwards while he dashed in pain towards me and activated his reflector. While I should have been sent backwards, the reflector actually trapped me in some kind of light shield and the waves coming from it hurt… no, they didn't, I could not feel any more pain than what I was already felt, and so it was easy to break the deflector's prison, I just spread my dark aura and it was enough.

Gabriel was surprised and shocked; he didn't expect me to be this strong, and so I noticed that he was about to use his final smash. He was glimmering in black aura, like mine, and he was about to call the Land Master, but something else happened.

"Ugh…!"

Just by looking at his eyes I felt an immense pain in my whole body, and when I spared a look at my body I noticed that I was covered in blood, my own blood. Where was I cut? I couldn't tell, and then when I glared at Gabriel I noticed that he wasn't in the same shape. Fox's shape had now nine tails at his back, the arms were covered by what seemed to be a purple armor made out of his rods, and around his fist there were fine and sharp claws, but the most noticeable change was his eyes, burning in a madness and rage similar to mines.

I laughed as my body was covered in even more darkness, stopping the flow of the blood.

"So this is your final form." I muttered "I have to say that I expected something else."

He didn't hesitate, he came towards me with no farther talk, but this time I was able to catch his movements with my eyes and avoid it. Our speed seemed to match and just as he slashed towards me with his claws I was able to dodge and attack, trying to connect a punch, but he was also able to dodge. We kept this way for a while, until my fists were grabbed and then I just opened my hands while sending my dark energy towards Gabriel, but just as it crashed into his chest it seemed to be stopped by something stronger, something I could not see. He was about to cut my head in a half, but then I pushed my hands back and I flipped, making Gabriel to lose balance and kicking him on the face to make him let my hands go.

As soon as I recovered in the air I flew upwards with the dark energy, until I broke the roof and reached the dark night above us; Gabriel was also able to come towards me with one simple jump and he remained in the air. I was about to give a direct hit to the heart, but I was one split second late. He pierced my chest first.

I coughed blood as I saw a bunch of kids coming. I recognized Matthew at the double.

_Strange… everything started with a boy just like him, with the same physical appearance, but colder eyes, and now it seems it will end with the same boy, but a warmer boy indeed._

Just as I looked at him, he seemed to spare a look towards me, and although I was dieing and I could not speak, I believe he was able to hear my thoughts.

_Don't ever become like me… Never let revenge take over you… live long, live prideful, and the most important of all… live happily, because my way of living is only a slow and painful way to die…_

And so it was over… I was starting to fade, I was becoming ashes in the wind, and however I had a glimpse of a happy memory before dieing. Sophie… I could just hope to meet her in the afterlife.

* * *

><p>"That's Sonic!" Matthew pointed out.<p>

It wasn't pleasant to see. Maquiel covered Melanie's eyes as we came closer to the place; Salaric barely explained what happened, he just said that we had to come here, that we had to stop Gabriel, and now we were staring at Sonic's death, who was becoming ashes in the wind.

And for the first time in a long time I saw Gabriel shape shifting back into his human self once he touched the floor. I didn't understand why, but seeing him in his human self after so much time was weird, besides he seemed rather dead.

"Interesting…" Gabriel said "When a smasher dies they become grey trophies, however a smasher who fed, even once, of a human heart will become ashes."

"Why did you kill him?" I asked.

"What is it Robert?" he asked, although he didn't seem to care "Wasn't he your enemy as well?"

Then I noticed that Melanie's face lost color, and her face was covered in tears. Maquiel held her tight, scared that Palutena might be crawling to the surface under Melanie's skin. Matthew seemed to be about to fight Gabriel when he spared one look towards Melanie.

"It can't be…" she muttered weakly "Mom and Salaric are…"

As soon as she said "It can't be", I jumped forwards, I took Matthew's Vatra from his belt and I unleashed the beam blade while heading towards Gabriel. He shape shifted at the double and he blocked the hit.

"I'm surprised." He said "You came before Matthew, you didn't shape shift, and you figured what happened before anyone else. I'm impressed, Robert."

But he had no more time to praise, because after he stopped talking Matthew was already at his back and he slashed it with sharp claws.

Gabriel yelled with pain while side jumping and I stared at Matthew a bit surprised. He was wearing Mario's outfit in his human form, and two wolf's ears were in his red cap, as if it was one of Mario's special suits, and from the white gloves, fine sharp claws covered his fists. I assumed it was his smash x evolution. I also noticed that he was furious, his eyes burnt with mighty hatred against Gabriel.

Maquiel also shape shifted and was about to attack Gabriel as well, but as soon she was about to land her first hit, he disappeared.

"He's gone…" Melanie mumbled "I can't feel him around…"

And then she started crying out loud. I dropped the blade and I stepped towards her as I heard Matthew screaming in rage and pain. I didn't know what to do with this; I was puzzled, and I was really sad. We lost more people, and Melanie was now in even more pain than what I could understand.


	8. The grief

_**A/N: **__Every time I upload a chapter we are nearer to the conclusion of the story, and every time I do is harder to think that after a long years this story is actually reaching its end. So I hope you are enjoying it as well! Let's keep going!_

* * *

><p><strong>The grief<strong>

"My mother…" Matthew said slowly and with a lot of pain "wasn't perfect. But she tried to be, she made her best to make sure me and Melanie would grow up just fine. She did everything she could, and that is what it counts… and all I can promise to her now is that we will survive, that we will take care of Alex… so I hope she knows that we are not going to stop living…"

Matthew was very, very sad. I haven't seen him this down since his dad died, and this time he was a different person, containing his tears, his rage and his sorrow, but I knew that behind that strong face lied the same kid who wanted to cry his lost out loud. I shed a tear, and I felt that it was a tear of respect towards Sophie; it wouldn't be the same without her around.

We prepared a private funeral for her; it was late in the night, with the city asleep and only drunken people around. We had Sophie's and Salaric's bodies next to each other, about to be burnt so that we could throw the ashes to the sea. We had driven to the beach all night and the bodies lied on the sand. Matthew didn't like that Salaric's ashes would be thrown away with Sophie's, but he was doing because of Meta Knight, who was holding Alex with his both, and also because in the end he decided to die protecting her. It was like he managed to redeem himself a little bit.

Melanie was unable to speak, she only shed tears in the sand, and Maquiel stayed by her side, hugging her while Matthew said his last words towards his mother.

"I never liked Salaric." Matthew said honestly "Two days ago I found out that he killed my father and I started hating him… but after mom died I realized that it was best to… to try to stop hating. He died protecting her, and although I will never forgive him for killing dad, I can respect his last actions. So rest in peace, and if you don't end down in hell… keep taking care of her."

Meta Knight walked forward as Matthew sat next to her mother's corpse. He was unable to say anything else; he was still shocked by her death. Meta Knight passed him Alex who was asleep.

"I loved her." Meta Knight said out loud, and we all stared at him "Before I fell for her, Kirby was my family; he was like a brother to me, so being in opposite sides was hard for me, I felt alone and I was scared. Then I got to know Sophie; she was like a bright light shinning in a deep darkness. Eventually I fell for her, because she made me feel like it didn't matter how rotten this world could be, you could always find something worth living. Then I started living in Salaric body, and despite his past I can tell he wasn't the man he used to be. He was a shy, warm, and brave man that fought until the end for her beloved wife, and to ensure the life of his son… which I see as my own. So these are my last words to you both. I will take care of Alex; I will make sure that he lives a long and full life. So worry not and rest in peace, my blade will always be brandish to protect your child."

He seemed to keep it perfectly together, however I knew that below that mask there was a deep sorrow, really, really deep, I was able to feel it by the way he spoke.

It was my turn to say something; I stood up and I walked forward, then I turned around and I stared at Melanie, who was still not able to say a single word.

"Sophie was there for us since the beginning." I said "She was always there to cheer us up, to take care of our wounds, to have our backs; she was there so we could have a house that we could call home."

I noticed that Melanie looked at me, turning her eyes aside from the sand for the very first time in the night; my heart beat faster.

"I don't feel her lost like Matthew, Melanie or Meta Knight, not even like Maquiel." I said with honesty "But it does affect me. We lost someone who was like a mother to everyone, someone who checked on us, who always provided us with her best intentions and her help in the darkest times. We have to remember her for all of that."

Melanie kept shedding tears in silence, but as our eyes met I realized that she was thankful for my words. Then when I stared at Matthew, he had the same look.

"Salaric made horrible things." I continued "But the man we knew wasn't the man who did all those things, he was the man who, despite his fear for battle, fought at our side to protect Sophie. He loved her; he fought for her to the end, despite his past. He was a warrior we have to respect. I say that four years ago Salaric was reborn, losing his memory made him a better man, made him an honorable man, and so we shall not keep the memory of his terrible act, but the one of the man who was at our side to help us. So I say, for their sake, let's remember the best of them."

"_Brother…_" Yoshi muttered in my mind, moved "_you did it again…_"

Indeed, everyone had that look again; that look that said that they trusted me, that they were able to see something good despite our terrible situation after hearing me out. I wanted to believe in my words… but most of it, I wanted to know that they could ease, even a little bit, the pain they were all feeling, because all of them were like my family now, I wanted all of them to be able to get over the pain and keep going.

Melanie wasn't able to say anything, so Maquiel handed her to me and she took my place.

"I'm not good at this." She said "I think Robert made it pretty clear. I can't say something about Sophie or Salaric that haven't been said already, however I do know that I want to thank them. I want to thank Sophie for taking care of me as if I was her own daughter, for believing in me, and for her countless support about my relationship with Matthew." She said that last one a bit blushed "And I want to thank Salaric for staying with us all this time, for fighting at our side, for standing strong for us. That's all I can tell."

As soon as she was done, she gently hugged Matthew while he got up of the sand and he looked at her mother's corpse with pain. Then flames were brought in the air and the bodies started burning until they finally became ashes that the wind spread towards the wind.

_Life is just dust in the wind. _It was like that Kansas song; life was so short lived, and still so precious. That day I understood it.

* * *

><p>I hated it… I hated being behind her door, hearing her crying out loud, being unable to tell her that everything would be ok, because it would never be ok. She lost her mother… she could barely keep it together. She only had Alex and Matthew left… She had lost so many people already; the grief she was going through was more than what I could imagine. I wanted to open that door and hug her, be there for her, so that she could feel warm, I wanted to restore her broken hope, but all I could do in reality was sitting on the floor with my back leaning on her closed door. She was crying, sobbing, and then crying again.<p>

Meta Knight was suffering, but he was always taking care of Alex, he became his father, there was no doubt of it. He kept a self made promise of taking care of that child.

Maquiel was supporting Matthew who was also broken inside. First he lost his father and now he lost his mother, but it wasn't as hard on him as on Melanie, she lost the man she loved too… damn it! I'm so furious even at remembering it, how much I wanted to be able to sweep all that pain, or if it was necessary to make it mine, because I knew I could handle it somehow, Melanie, on the other hand, wasn't as strong and cold. I stood up and my hand reached for the latch with hesitation.

"Mel, may I come in?"

_Mel? What's going on with you idiot! She just lost her mother! And you call her Mel out of nothing? _For a second I feared that she would reject me or that she would burst into more tears, but it wasn't the case.

"Do as you like…" she said weakly.

I went through the door and I looked at her face, still shedding tears; her pillow was soaked wet, her body seemed fragile, and I noticed that she hadn't eaten in days. I sat in a chair in front of her bed and I bent my head forward.

"Please, tell me if there is something I can do to help…"

"Just… stay here." She said weakly "I don't want to be alone right now."

And so I did. I said no word, but I stayed beside her all the time she needed and wanted me to be around. She kept crying and I was just a mere spectator who didn't know what words to use or what to do, however I stayed there like a knight standing guard on his princess. However I had some ideas on my mind that weren't that noble… I imagined myself around that princess, hugging her, cuddling, kissing her, and doing some other things too. I tried to cast those thoughts away, but they were there, a burning lust for the woman in front of me… woman? She was merely a teen! And still… there was something in her that made me feel warm; every time I saw her smiling I thought my heart beat faster, I felt that my cold chest was getting warmer, every time she supported me I felt like nothing could stop me, and she always believed in me, no matter what. There were many things I could not understand about her, yet I didn't care, all of that made her special to me.

"I'm losing everyone…" Melanie said in a sad voice "I'll be alone in no time."

"Melanie, there will be a time when life pull us apart, we can't tell when that will be, but until then we can fight to preserve those we love."

"Why?"

"Because we can create memories." I said firmly "There'll be sad times, but there'll be also joy. It's true, we've lost too many people, but don't we have good memories of them? Isn't it worth fighting so that we can remember them like this?"

"We shouldn't be fighting in the first place…" she replied gloomy.

"I know." I replied "It's a stupid conflict, but all we can do is move forward. Melanie, I'm going to protect you; you, Maquiel and Matthew. Alex and Meta Knight as well! We are the only ones left, we have to stand together."

Melanie didn't reply. I hoped she listened to me; in other circumstances those words would have never been said by me, but I knew that I wanted a chance to create memories along Melanie, I wanted to have her for me until the day I died. _We can fight the smashers, we can delay dead, but in the end we'll all be extinct, even god some day maybe, but until that day I'll fight… I'll fight to keep everyone around me and when the time comes, I know I will have died with pride, because I'll have created good memories by then. I know I have already made very good one._" That last one thought was filled with the image of Yoshi.

"_Brother…_" Yoshi said moved "_You always know… how to make me cry._"

"You are a crybaby Yoshi."

"_I know…_" he replied while he gave me the image of a smile on my mind "_Robert, I want to protect you too. I want to be strong like you and save everyone._"

But that was a wish… we weren't strong enough, we could only try. At this point I have been unable to save anyone, however I could still try… was it worth it? Yes, I tried to convince myself of it._ But he is still there, somewhere, struggling to control you. _I grabbed my arm as I tried not to think about it, however I could not stop thinking about it, how eventually the time may come when I was overcame by Lucario… and then it came back to me… that day…

_It was a beautiful sunset; there were plenty children around the front yard, training Judo techniques. There was a humble, still comfortable wooden house behind us. We had left the city years ago and we moved out to a little town in the south, a peaceful place where we could wait together the end. I was happy with her. We were both adults, I was seven years older, but the difference was not so big, I was 41, she was 33. She preserved the golden curly hair and the pale blue eyes I loved, the innocent smile too as we kissed. I was kissing Melanie, and then I realized she was wearing an engagement ring; she was my bride to be, and some of those kids around where our own kids. I hugged her as I started feeling some fear._

"_Thanks" she said to me softly "I created many good memories with you. I love you, Robert."_

_My heart was filled with a warm sensation, a burning love came from the depths of my soul as we shared what we knew would be our last kiss._

_And then it happened. I could not restrain him any longer, Lucario's aura finally managed to break through the vaccines, and he set Tabuu free. I became Tabuu's vessel and my first act as such was to fill the field with the children's blood and then I attacked Melanie. She managed to survive the first strike; however she had no intentions to keep on living. I was seeing this with sorrow and pain, unable to take over the monster, as my bride to be was murdered by my own hand._

I finally understood it. What I thought I remembered never happened that's why it wasn't on the board; I actually had a flash forward, a glimpse of a distant future. I always believed I saw a piece of my past I could not remember well, but it was actually my future.

"Why are you crying?" Melanie asked softly.

I didn't realize until she spoke that my face was covered in tears; to think that eventually I would kill her, that eventually Lucario would take over me and I would kill them all.

I was unable to speak so I crossed the door and closed it quickly. Then I lean against it. _That's it, I have to kill myself._

"_No, you can't!_" Yoshi protested "_There's too much we have to do! Besides that won't happen until the next 28 years! We have enough time to end this!_"

"What if we can't?" I asked in a whisper "What if I end up killing her? It's known that walking away from fate usually leads to fate doorstep."

"_I don't care!_" Yoshi replied, and for the first time in my life I noticed he was actually angry "_We will break fate, we will choose our future! Think about it Robert, can Melanie truly endure one more lose? Can Matthew or Maquiel? You have to endure it; what we saw is a possible future…_"

"What we saw…" I replied on my mind "Made me a cold blooded person, after I saw it for the first time. I delivered myself to Lucario and drank his blood. Can't you see it? It's a paradox."

"_If it's a paradox then you won't kill yourself either._" Yoshi interjected "_Robert, it doesn't matter, we can try to figure it all out, but the best we can do is to actually kill Tabuu. We need to fight, you said it yourself._"

"That was before…"

"_Robert, I can't let you die, because I can't endure life without you. You are my brother, but you are also a part of me, if you die I have to die too, can't you endure that?_"

Yoshi was serious, I could actually tell how much our lives were entangled, how much he was willing to sacrifice for me; if I didn't kill myself I knew it was because of him, and I knew if that future came to pass it would be because of this. But it wouldn't, I wouldn't let it come to happen, I would find the way to stop it, however the price is high, and even while telling you the story I still doubt wherever a new route will be opened, because you might not know, but our story had changed a lot. But we'll get there, all you need to know is that I would try to find a way to shatter that fate.

The time came when I fell asleep; I didn't want to, but I was unable to avoid it. As soon as I was in dreamland I noticed that I took over the same dream I had countless times, but this time from the last part.

"Let's start phase two." The shrink said as she left the room.

And as soon as she left I noticed that Lucario entered. I was shocked and I tried to break through the ties that held me to the chair.

"It's been a while, Robert." He said with clear voice, without talking to my mind "A lot have happened."

"So you created this dream, uh?" I asked laughing "Very lame attempt to confuse me."

"Confuse you?" he replied with a smile "I don't even have to try! Your mind is a mess, Robert! It is so easy to control you!"

"Oh really?" I asked "Then how it comes that I've been under my body's control?"

"I don't have to control your body in order to make you act as I like."

"Why do you do this?" I finally asked "Don't tell me it's about loyalty, because Pit only used you as a puppet; tell me what really moves you to do this."

"I always felt out of place, you know?" he said with ease as he stared me at the eyes "I never fit in anywhere, I merely joined a group I thought would help me to survive, and then you came in. You are like me Robert; I knew that from the moment we first met."

"I'm nothing like you."

"You might tell that to yourself as much as you like." He said calmly "But deep down you know we share a bond. I have finally found a place I feel I belong…"

"You don't belong here!" I replied "The only smasher allowed to be in my body is Yoshi! He is my family!"

"Is he?"

The question was outright lame, was that his best attempt to make me doubt? After all what Yoshi and I have been through there was no way he could go down that road and make it work; Yoshi and I had already figured all out, we didn't even cared about the past any longer, we would always be brothers.

"Back on Zero World, when you found the board, it seemed more like you thought like me than him, you were barely listening to his warnings."

"So what?" I asked bored "Family has disagreements, they may not listen to each other time to time, but you can't say that because it happened one time it's always like that."

"But he doesn't know you as I do."

That last comment pissed me off; there was no one who knew me as well as him.

"I do know you, Robert. Your true self and that is the side of you that will eventually turn into Tabuu willingly."

"I'll never do that."

"That's what Yoshi thinks, and that's what you want to think, but I'm the one who really knows you Robert, and I know you will eventually come to him. And when the time comes I will be at your side, ready to guide you."

"The last thing I want is your guidance."

Then everything started falling apart, the whole setting was starting to break as if it was a mirror shattering into million pieces, leaving me and Lucario on a white space.

"Well, I'd say you are about to wake up." Lucario said smiling "I'm a part of you now Robert, you can't change that."

"Maybe." I said "But you will never take over my will."

"Fate is fate."

"I will crush fate."

"Then let's see hoe you do that."

And then, when I woke up I came to a horrible realization; Melanie was gone.


	9. The rage

**The rage**

It wasn't until late that I finally got out of bed. My eyes were red and my throat hurt from all the crying, but I had to make them all believe that I needed my time alone. Robert was asleep next to me. He did not explain me why he burst into tears earlier, but he did stayed next to me, with a look of great concern until he fell asleep.

"Thank you Robert." I whispered as I drew out of my pillow Link's ocarina "Thanks for staying with me."

I didn't hesitate while staring at the ocarina in my hand. I had stolen Maquiel's beam sword, Vode, and I attached it to my belt. I knew I could not give Gabriel a chance; I would kill him once and for all.

As soon as I played the ocarina I could feel how I was turned into energy and traveled around a colorful world towards Zero World; I didn't know how, but I managed to get into the Siege Castle entrance at my first try, probably a lucky shot.

I shape shifted into Zelda; ever since I started being injected the vaccines I could not hear Zelda, probably it suppressed her too, but I knew she was there, grieving and supporting me. Just like me she lost Link, and since I lost my mother I knew this madness had to end. Gabriel was the last line, with the warriors of sunset gone if I killed Gabriel there might be the guarantee that Tabuu could never be called forth again, and Robert would have never to worry about becoming his vessel.

As I touched the entrance door, they opened as if they were waiting for me.

"Please, come in." Gabriel's voice said "I've been waiting for you, Mel."

I walked in with hatred; he wasn't in the entrance, there was only a dark stone path illuminated by candles, leading to doors and a great stair forward.

"Climb up the stairs, go to the first door to your left, there is a stage for our encounter."

I did just as he said, and as soon as I got to the door I opened it and found an incredible huge empty room; there was nothing, not even a roof, but miles of stone floor, an arena prepared for a battle, and in the center there was Gabriel. The rage came flowing, I wanted to kill him, but there was something I wanted more, I wanted answers.

"Why?" I asked full of resentment.

"What a predictable question." Gabriel commented as he stepped forward "You know Melanie, I've been thinking of many answers to that specific question, and I could tell you that the main reason I killed your mother is because she killed mine, however there's more to it than that."

I frowned, while glaring at him.

"Have you ever noticed that we, the five shape shifters, always fight each other?"

My eyes opened wide; I never thought of it, I never ever considered it, and when he said it I wanted to believe it had no importance, but a side of me knew it wasn't like that.

"Think about it, in all these years we had no clear enemy, but ourselves. I have fought you, Maquiel, Matthew and Robert. Maquiel has fought you, Robert, Matthew and me. Robert has fought you, Matthew, Maquiel and me. Matthew has fought Robert, Maquiel, you and me. And of course you fought all of us too. As soon as we became one group, while trying to destroy the subspace, we had to be shattered quickly, even back then when we, shape shifters, were a team, Matthew stabbed Robert, and then I deserted, why? There were many reasons, but behind all of it there is only one that matters. Everyone can die, but us. We won't die because we are the fuel that keeps the world spinning."

I was trembling; what Gabriel said was nuts, it made no sense, but there was a side of me that was actually believing it.

"You came here to kill me, but you decided to hear me out instead, to ask me why. The reason behind that choice is that this world can't handle the lost of any of us, so instead of coming to fight me directly you decided to listen, so that I wouldn't kill you, but we still are going to fight, because our conflict will keep the world alive."

"It can't be…" I mumbled.

"But it is." He replied with ease "I came to this realization a long time ago, and since then I knew that it was necessary for two of the five of us to become Tabuu and Palutena, so the conflict wouldn't be attached to our short life spam. As you should know by now, if you die so will Palutena, but if she takes over she can make your body live forever, that's why we need to call Tabuu forth! Can you understand Pit's and Ike's actions now? They had candidates for an eternal conflict, each of them fought in order to bring Tabuu and Palutena to this world to make the world alive, they trained us, they forced us to fight and become strong vessels for that sake. Of course, Pit sought that to happen so that he could rule this war after the chaos caused by Tabuu's and Palutena's struggle, while Ike pursed the revival of his lost allies and the alliance of the smashers, that's why the night stalkers and warriors of sunset were enemies in the first place."

"No…" I replied while trying to process it all down "No! You're lying!"

"Then what are you waiting for?" Gabriel asked while shouting "Come and kill me!"

It wasn't hard for me to attack him; I just had to think about my dead mother. I decided not to play games and I shot him a light arrow as soon as I could. He dodged it with no trouble. I was being reckless, I already used the final smash without considering how much energy it took, however I didn't feel like I wasted any energy at all, was it because Palutena? I didn't know, but I was sure I would use that to my advantage. Gabriel looked at me concerned about my ability, after all if I hit him I could draw Fox out of his body and I would have the upper hand. So I didn't doubt while creating a new light arrow, and this time I realized that I could double shot; two arrows were released from my bow and they were so fast thrown that Gabriel was forced to activate the reflector and then roll as it got destroyed. And I didn't lose time, I kept creating more arrows with fully intention to end it, and then once he became just a human I would kill him. I was drawn with a desire for revenge; I cared about nothing but to manage to kill him. The arrows were thrown, at least seven at the same time and Gabriel had to do a flash dash in order to escape from the arrows, and he also escaped from my eye's reach, so I deducted that he would be at my back and I prepared a brand new arrow while I turned around. His eyes were filled in fear as he barely dodged the arrow by flipping, and then he called forth his Land Master in order to cover from my arrows, however it took me just two shoots of ten arrows each to completely destroy it. I wasn't sure how I wasn't wasting any stamina by this, but I was glad to know that I could finally…

_Isn't it worth fighting so that we can remember them like this? _The last arrow I sent missed, I didn't aim well. Those words, they were from Robert, and they were comforting, they were everything I needed to hear back then, and I just… it just made sense to me.

Gabriel seemed at me puzzled as I lowered my bow.

"What's wrong?"

I was surprised that he was rather talking than attacking.

"Didn't you want to kill me?"

"I do…" I said while I aimed again, regaining my focus "I was just thinking that if I do it I won't be any better than you."

"So what?" he asked "Does this mean you give up?"

"No." I said while the rage started consuming me "It means I won't hesitate any longer."

I shot again; I didn't care if I wasn't any better than Gabriel, I just couldn't forgive him, I couldn't! He killed the smashers, Salaric, my beloved Link and my mother! How could I let it all pass? All the things about revenge leading to nothing, I couldn't care the less about that crap! I just wanted to make sure that he wouldn't exist any longer, that he wouldn't make anyone suffer and…!

_Melanie, I'm going to protect you… _Why Robert's word echoed in my head? Why every time those words came in my mind the rage seemed to decrease? Then I noticed… I couldn't change anything, no matter how many arrows I shot, or even if I killed Gabriel, I couldn't bring mom back.

I was filled with tears and rage while Gabriel kept dodging the arrows; I wasn't sure about what to do any longer. If I let him live, he would definitely hurt us again, but if I killed him I would carry that burden and I would have accomplished nothing. What to do? I really didn't know anything, I wasn't fighting to protect my family and friends, I wasn't fighting to create memories, I wasn't fighting… I was merely using violence.

"Zelda, are you there?" I asked in my mind.

But she didn't reply. Ever since I was taken over by Palutena she wouldn't talk; she was there, but she was overwhelmed by something deep, and I thought it was just Palutena, but it was the darkness of my heart.

I fell on my knees; I wasn't sure why I was fighting any longer, what good would come from it? Could I stop it by just killing Gabriel?

He took advantage of my hesitation and I saw how the road was about to fall against me with such might that it could have squashed my head.

_I'm sorry everyone… _I thought as my eyes closed. _I don't have your resolve._

I really thought I would die, that it would, somehow, help ending this conflict, but when I opened my eyes I noticed that I could only see white. I was being protected by a pair of wings, which acted as a shield that covered me as short arms grabbed me and pulled me back. Then the wings opened and I saw Matthew's back; he was stopping Gabriel's road.

"Thanks for protecting her Robert." Matthew said coldly as he thrust Gabriel back.

Then I noticed that Matthew was wearing Mario's suit and he was using a different kind of blade, it was nothing like Vatra, it seemed like a real steel sword. He also had wolf's ears around the red cap and claws around the gloves.

"You shouldn't have come here alone." That voice was Maquiel's "Good thing we had the black ocarina."

"Robert, Maquiel." Matthew said even colder "Please stay back… I don't think I will be able to control my flames any longer. Robert, protect them, if my flames go out wild, use your wings as shield."

"_I would have even if you didn't ask._" He replied.

"I'm done with you Gabriel." Matthew said with bursting fury "I always believed that the time for your redemption would come, but… YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME!"

Just as he said flames went out wild as he slashed Gabriel. Robert's wings covered me and Maquiel, while she hugged me to ensure protection with her power suit. They were so set on protecting me… they were all I have left… and then I realized that I was that too. I was such an idiot by coming her by myself. And now Matthew was fighting all alone, consumed by the same rage that controlled me just a minute ago.

* * *

><p>I couldn't forgive him; I couldn't contain all the hatred inside. I was tired of being everyone's puppet, to be acting under someone's expectation or plot, I just wanted to be over with all that crap!<p>

I was grateful that my flames could be stopped by Robert's wings, and that Maquiel's power suit could withstand it, because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold back.

I had the upper hand; Gabriel could block Vatra with his road, but the flames did reach his body and burnt him. He was forced to jump backwards and then he smiled. I didn't understand why, but he seemed to be escaping. He jumped off the arena, while an airwing took him outside the castle.

"NOT THIS TIME!" I yelled with might.

Mario's cape appeared out of nowhere and I followed the airwing, which was flying outside Siege Castle, until we reached what seemed to be the top of a tower, were Gabriel jumped off the airwing. I descended there and I slashed him with might, but once again the road blocked the sword and it seemed that it would be broken very soon, and even while his body was being covered in flames, Gabriel smiled.

"I'm destroying fate today Matthew!" He said with enthusiasm "Your end means the end!"

I didn't understand what he was saying, and I didn't care, I just wanted to rip his heart out, however it wasn't the case. Purples waves came out of his body as he shape shifted back to his human self. I was thrown to the edge of the tower as I realized that Fox's body was being pulled aside from Gabriel.

"What the f…?" I asked out loud.

"Gabriel…" Fox mumbled weakly.

Gabriel turned around and he kicked him, making him fall out of the tower.

I was shocked by the coldness of his action, the way he just kicked Fox out of the tower.

"He will survive." Gabriel announced "However I didn't need him any longer."

"What the hell are you?" I asked scared.

"Why would I let Robert steal from me so easily?" he asked "When he came I could have fought him, but I didn't, I merely played with Ike, while he got what he needed, and didn't you think I wouldn't have a stack for me as well?"

"I don't get it."

"I'm saying that…"

At that very point I stabbed him in the heart, while he was talking, to make sure that I would have killed him, however he just smiled at me and he removed the blade with his fingers.

"Matt, are you so naïve to think that Tabuu would let me die so easily?"

My eyes opened wide as I started shaking.

"You are… Tabuu's vessel?"

"And thanks to Richard's vaccine, I'm the one controlling his powers, powers so amazing that even while stabbing me in the chest with your powerful Vatra, you are unable to kill me."

I drew Vatra out as I realized I never pierced the heart, I just was under the illusion I did, but in fact I just stabbed his left arm, and the injury seemed to start healing by itself.

"I was disappointed on your sister, I thought she would have learnt to use Palutena's power by this far."

I didn't waste more time talking, I just tried to slash him, but then as soon as he received the blade impact in his shoulder, he pierced my chest.

"This is the true end."

After that I felt his hands around my heart, and then it was all pitch black.


	10. The lost one

_**A/N: **__Sorry to keep you waiting, I was blocked by the time I was writing the finale, and can you blame me? I JUST FINISHED IT FOR REAL! XD. It's really hard for me to finish my stories, because it's like closing a door and shut it down, however it's something it must be done. I'll be uploading the final chapters soon, so I hope you keep enjoying until the end._

_Recomended track for this chapter: Ft- Funkist (JRock, hell yeah!)  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>The lost one<strong>

_The day everything started,_

_Was also the day we all departed?_

_Now, as we reach for the end,_

_I realize our journey can't be explained,_

_Words can't begin to describe,_

_The misery that on our souls strikes,_

_But it's all worthy…_

_Because joy lies within our memories._

* * *

><p>I felt like I was being frozen solid; my whole blood became cold as my body started trembling. My face started sweating, my eyes were burning, and I wasn't able to understand what caused this feeling.<p>

Next to me was Maquiel, hoping for Matthew to be just fine, and Melanie who was terrified; she grabbed my arm with might as she looked me in the eyes.

"Please!" she asked me "Go help Matthew! I sense something terrible is going to happen."

"_Take care of her, Maquiel_."

I didn't doubt one second, I didn't hesitate even once while flapping my wings towards the sky as my eyes looked for Matthew and Gabriel around. What was going to happen that was so terrible? Why did I have the feeling that all the joy in the world was being sucked? I would understand it soon.

"_Matthew!_" I screamed with my mind "_Where are you? Think so that I can hear you!_"

But there wasn't a single thought, it was like there was no one around the whole sunset sky of castle siege, then when were they? And then when my eyes finally caught a glimpse of two shapes I could not believe what I saw.

"_No_…"

Gabriel's hand had just pierced Matthew's chest.

I descended at high speed, flapping my wings like I never had, and I crashed against Gabriel, thrusting him backwards, while my eyes immediately checked on Matthew. It was deathly wound, he was bleeding badly, and his eyes seemed to start losing life.

"_NO!_" I shouted directly to his mind "_YOU CAN'T DIE!_"

I shape shift back to my human self and I ran towards him to… I didn't even know what to do, I just could step next to him as my eyes started to shed tears, while Matthew's life started to fade.

"Talk to me!" I commanded "You can't die! Of all of us! You are the one who can't die!" I cried out loud "DON'T…!"

But then I noticed that the pulse was gone, and so was the smash x evolution. He returned to his usual self, but lifeless. He was a corpse now; there was no strain of life around him. I held his body in my hands and I broke into crying as my hands became stained with his blood. He was gone… Matthew was gone… the only person who could save us all… no, that didn't matter any more, he was gone! HE WAS GONE! A person so close to me, like a brother; someone who always understood me, and who also forgave me no matter how much I screwed things up.

I was covered by an immense amount of sorrow, as I held him in my arms and cried.

"It's over." Gabriel said "The cycle is over."

At the very moment I heard his voice I became filled with rage. The tears stopped flowing as I stood up and looked at him with deathly and angry eyes. My body shook as I started thinking about a way to kill him, to make him pay for everything he had done.

"Don't you understand what you did?" I asked out loud with fury "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"The one who doesn't understand is you, Robert." He replied "I had slain fate…"

He was going to keep talking, but I took Matthew's Vatra and I slashed it against him. I didn't even notice that the blade was different, that it held Matthew's flames on it, and by the time I did the blade already cut through his shoulder like butter, however he didn't seem to be affected at all, he just reached to my forehead with his left hand and he made a finger flick. I was thrust backwards with a great high pressure and I crashed against a pillar, next to Matthew.

"I need strength!" I thought "Yoshi, I'll give you all my powers! Just give me the strength to fight back in return, please!"

"_Brother…_"

"I don't care if I'm wrapped in aura powers; I need to finish him off." That thought was filled with a great determination "This person I can't forgive! And I can't let him take more people's lives."

That last thought was filled with the image of Melanie. I couldn't afford to think of him harming her, killing her. No, I would kill him right here.

"_I can't forgive him either._" Yoshi replied "_Final form is submission; up until now you've been afraid of me handling you aura powers, which is why we never obtained it, but now… I can feel it around me, and I will give you my strength._"

"It might be not enough power." I thought while looking at him with rage "But all make it somehow! Even if my body breaks!"

My body was filled in green aura that went out with a burst; I could feel more power than I ever handled, I was about to take the next step in the evolution.

_I might be not as strong as you, I might even die at my first attack, but I won't give up. For Melanie's sake. _I shape shifted back into Yoshi and this time I felt different, I noticed that my body felt lighter and it burnt like if I was on fire.

"Red Yoshi?" Gabriel asked curious.

Then I noticed I changed of color. I wasn't green anymore, I was red.

"_TAKE THIS BASTARD DOWN!_" Yoshi commanded.

Within a split second I was behind Gabriel and I kicked his head before he could dodge. He fell on the ground and then he pointed his hand against me, but then I felt a new change; my body was filled with air and I let it all go out as I floated my way away the purple waves Gabriel shot against me.

"So now you are blue." He said "Is this your final form? Changing color?"

Every single color meant a different skill; while red was super speed, blue was flying, then what other color did I have?

"_Yellow._"

My body started shining in bright light as my body returned to its original Yoshi shape, but shining as a sun, and I felt a mighty power around my whole body.

"_Light Yoshi is the strongest Yoshi._" That was my own voice realizing the power of this shape.

As I fell back in the tower I shone with bright light and then I rushed against Gabriel to punch him; it was such a strong hit that I could hear how some of his inner organs were smashed and the rock floor beneath us started crumbling. Then I released my tongue and crashed Gabriel against every single wall around, and I decided to give my final attack with everything I had.

For some reason he just stood there, staring at me, while wings sprouted of my back and a multicolored egg appeared in my hand. My target was clear, and as I aimed against him the egg was set in flames.

"_METEOR YOSHI BLAST!_"

That egg contained the whole powers of all kinds of Yoshi and it reached its target in a split second. As soon as it was fired it exploded and tower started to fall, and with the remains of my strength I flew towards Matthew and I flew with him outside the castle, reaching the entrance grounds. As soon as my feet touched the ground I shape shifted back to my human self and fell next to Matthew. I was dried out of power.

"Hopefully he took some damage." I mumbled while breathing in and out "I doubt I killed him… but… I can at least hope for that…"

But then the worst thing happened; he appeared in front of my eyes, unharmed. I should have known, after all he killed Matthew and was completely unharmed by then, however I did hope to be able to inflict damage, to slow him down a little bit at least.

"Damn it!" I said out loud.

* * *

><p>By the time I noticed it was too late. Melanie was next to me with a face filled with horror; she realized something terrible.<p>

"No way…" she mumbled.

"Don't worry about Matthew!" I said immediately "He is strong! Besides Robert is with him!"

"He died!"

My eyes opened wide as a tear fell. It could not be true, of all of us Matthew was the one I knew would never die, after all he was always the strongest, he was… but then when I considered the possibility I became wrapped in a fear I never met. He was about to disappear… no, it couldn't be! NO!

"His soul is about to leave the body!" Melanie yelled "The heart is torn apart! The world is about to bend!"

I fell on my knees; just thinking about a world without Matthew… my life without him was meaningless, I just might as well die. But then I noticed that Melanie needed me, that if I wasn't around there would be no one to protect her, and that would be the one thing Matthew would wanted me to do, or his death would be on vain.

"I can't let him die."

At the time I realized that Melanie was being covered by a light blue aura around her.

"I'll give you my body…"

"Melanie, no!"

She was summoning Palutena from beneath her veins.

"JUST GIVE ME MY BROTHER BACK!"

It was a burst of aura right in front of my eyes. She was still the same Melanie, but different. Her eyes were cold and she seemed like nothing in the world was out of her reach. She smiled as me as I took a defensive stance.

"A rush of white blood."

"Uh?"

My body paralyzed as I started floating in the air; tears fell from my face as I felt that a rush of energy flowed around my body and a pair of white wings sprouted wildly at my back.

"What's happening?" I asked out loud.

"Pit is about to take over." Palutena said smiling "And now if you excuse me, I have something to fix."

She disappeared in front of my eyes, while I was left with this excruciating pain. I closed my eyes and I asked for help inside on me.

"_I won't let it take over you!_"

That was Samus' voice; suddenly I wasn't around Siege Castle anymore, I was in middle of the sea, standing in a boat next to Samus and in front of Pit.

Samus seemed weakened and Pit seemed to be mighty powerful, he stared at me amused.

"Resistance is futile."

I glared at him with rage as I lifted my fist.

"It's your entire fault." I said with fury "You won't take over me! I'll make you pay!"

* * *

><p>"Well that was a great display of power." Gabriel commented with ease "You have a great final form, I imagine if you continue evolving like that you would surpass Matthew."<p>

My body was numb, I could not move, I could only watch how Gabriel started at me amused.

"Did you think I was going all out with you?" he asked while laughing "Don't be so naïve! I wanted to see how far you could go! A shame not so far as Matthew though."

_Move! You need to move! There's gotta be a way to kill him off! You need to stand up!_

"I have Tabuu's power, Robert."

I glared at him; so that was why Matthew lost and died so easily, that was why I had no chance since the very beginning of the fight. _Who cares? Get up! Melanie needs you!_

"One of the five of us is all it took, and he is dead now, so I may spare your life."

_GET UP!_

I didn't know when I did it, or how I did it, but I was back on my feet and I shape shifted back into Yoshi as soon as I could and then I rushed towards Gabriel, however he just put his head on my face and then an excruciating pain covered my whole body, like if I was being stabbed by thousands swords and being unable to die.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled with might.

I shape shifted back to my human self and I fell on my knees, but I refused to lose consciousness. My eyes were burning in pain and rage as I glared at Gabriel. How could this be the end?

¡Zum!

Out of nowhere Melanie appeared in front of us, but her eyes were different, they were cold and calculators. She grabbed Gabriel wrist.

"Wake up Tabuu."

I was sent flying backwards by the power that was being unleashed around Gabriel; he yelled with a might I never ever heard before, like if his yell represented a life that was being vanished from this world.

"No way…" I mumbled as fell on the sand and stared at them "Does this mean…? Melanie is…?"

Yes, she was. She became Palutena. It made sense; after all she could feel the lost of her brother. She lost all of her family, her beloved Link, and I couldn't avoid it, damn it! I could just stay in the ground staring this play out; my body was refusing to act as I commanded.

"How could you let it come this far, Tabuu?" she asked angrily "You know none of the boys can die until our struggle begins."

"Sorry about that." That was Gabriel's voice, but it was different, like if it was echoing every word "That kid was smart, he used Richard's vaccines to suppress me while using my power."

"Anyway." She said "We need to fix the damage already done."

Then something unbelievable happened; Matthew's wounds were gone and his eyes opened out of the blow.

I stared at him shocked and terrified… to think they actually had the power to bring the dead back to life.

"Bring them all back…" I said while closing my eyes "Please! Everyone we lost…"

"…Is meant to be lost."

I opened my eyes wide and then they were filled with anger.

"Who are you to decide that?"

"Who are you to decide to bring them back?" Palutena asked me "Even if we bring them back they will die again, it's their fate."

"Fuck fate!" I screamed as I got up "If you're not going to do it, I'll have to force you!"

I felt a huge pressure on my shoulders and I fell in front of them again; I glared as I tried to recover, but the pressure was like a wave of gravity I could not overcome, not with my powers drained out.

"The only reason I brought Matthew back is because he was never meant to be dead." Palutena explained "This world exists because the five of you are in an eternal conflict, and thus if one of you dies this world would cease to exist."

"WHAT?" I asked.

"So this entire time…" Matthew said shocked "all the times we fought against each other…"

"You were making this world exist." Tabuu concluded.

"It can't be!" I replied "Our existences are not so we can fight each other!"

"But it is…"

"I don't care!" I cried out loud "I'm going to defeat you! Then I'm getting Melanie back! And we'll live through the battle to achieve peace!"

Despite the whole gravity force that was holding me down I stood up, and I stared at Melanie's face; she was being used to this purpose, she suffered too much because of it, only because it was a god's whimsy. No… I would change the world if necessary for her, I would take the entire burden myself if it had to be done, but I wouldn't let it be this way.

"I don't care why you do this!" I yelled "I don't give a fuck why you try to make us fight, but I won't have it!"

"If you do not, the world will cease to exist." Palutena said.

"It won't!" I assured "Because no matter how, I will change the world!"

Palutena and Tabuu seemed to be amused by my words, but Matthew at my side was able to snap out of his confusion and his eyes became as strong and determined as mines. There had to be a way, even if the world started to crumble, there had to be a way to lead the battle to an end! So that we could end our misery as well.

"Wolf entrusted me his powers so that I could build the future I wanted." He said firmly "Mario gave me his powers so that I could protect those close to me. There is no way we are letting you get away with this! Fate or not we will break it!"

We felt a breeze of wind and the sand started to flow as we heard the sound of bones being broken and then reasambled. Maquiel was behind Palutena and her leg was stopped by Melanie's arm. Maquiel was different; while she was in her human shape she was wearing Samus' zero suit, but also wearing the two arms from the power suit around hers. Was that her smash x evolution?

"So you overcame Pit and got you smash x evolution." Palutena praised "I knew you were a special kind of girl."

Maquiel made a high jump towards us, and as soon as she looked at Matthew her eyes were filled with tears; she knew he died for an instance. She didn't care about Tabuu and Palutena and she ran towards Matthew and hugged him with might.

"Matt!" she yelled "I thought I would never see you again!"

"Mackie…" Matthew replied weakly "I can't… breathe…"

Maquiel broke the hug at the double while Matthew breathed in.

"And some bones…" he continued while recovering his breathe "I think they are broken too…"

I sighed; Maquiel had a hard time measuring her strength at times. But that very little and cliché comedic stand up made me remember old times, and it made my determination stronger. Somehow, the three of us could defeat these guys. We always faced stronger enemies, as long as we didn't give up there had to be a way.

Then I had a very obvious idea.

"Let's go back home!" I said immediately.

Maquiel was about to complain, but what I wanted to do was so obvious that she didn't need to, she nodded while Matthew drew out the ocarina.

I stared at Tabuu and Palutena; there was a reason why they weren't stopping us, but right back then I couldn't think of that, we had to retreat first.

We got back home in a couple of minutes; Maquiel noticed my body was still weak and she left me on the couch so I could rest up.

"We need the vaccines." I said.

"It's not good…"

Our eyes opened wide as soon as we heard that voice.

"…It won't work…"

My eyes were set on the door and they caught the shape of Fox trembling as he fell on his knees.

"What are you doing here?" I asked "When did you get here? How?"

"That doesn't matter!" he replied as his face fell to his lap "Please! Help me save Gabriel!"


	11. The Genocide Rhapsody

_**A/N**__**: **__Longest chapter since "The fear factor". It is essentially dived in the aftermath of the previous chapter and fighting scenes. I didn't mean to make it this long, but it just happened to be. I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>The Genocide Rhapsody<strong>

"I know I'm in no position to ask so…" he said sobbing "But please! For mercy… he…"

"Fox, do you have an idea of the damage he caused?" I asked "Can you really expect us, especially Matthew, to help him after what he did?"

"I'm aware, if I could I'd do it myself, but…" he stopped so he could cry a bit "You are my only hope!"

"Come on in." Matthew said coldly.

Fox obeyed and Matthew closed the door behind him; he looked at Fox with a look I've never seen before, a mixture of pity and rage.

Fox looked at the place with a bit of nostalgia, like if he was coming home after a journey of many years. I could tell he never meant for any of the things Gabriel did, he was just shut down in the deeps of his soul, then why did he want to save that man? He was twisted, and I was actually rather relieved to fight Tabuu instead of him, he gave me the creep, but here was Fox, asking for us to have mercy on his soul.

"You can't ask me to forgive him." Matthew said coldly.

"I know." Fox replied sadly "I'm aware that he killed Sophie… I always tried to stop him, but my voice never reached him, he thought I was dead."

"What happened?" Maquiel asked "Gabriel wasn't always like this, he was a good guy, responsible, honorable, he had sad eyes, but he wasn't the kind of man he is today."

"It started when his father came to see him four years ago." Fox explained with pain "Falco was with him too, and at the time he was consuming Gabriel's mother blood in order to control him, since then he was took into Wolf's side, but when things got really screwed up was when his mother died… and she was killed by Sophie."

"You are kidding me." I said shocked.

"Ask Matthew, he was the one who tried to cover it up."

Both me and Maquiel stared at Matthew, who was not saying anything in response, so we took for granted that it was true, after all silence doesn't lie.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Maquiel asked.

"Was it necessary?" Matthew asked "Anna threatened her with a gun and my mother defended herself. She wasn't proud of it, so why would I have to talk about it? It would have only hurt her, and by the time she died it would have stained her memory."

"It doesn't." Maquiel assured "And it's not like it changes anything, I won't forgive Gabriel, but at least I can understand…"

"What is there to understand?" Matthew asked pissed "The guy killed our allies, Salaric and my mom! He also killed me in by the way and if it wasn't for…!"

He stopped right there, he didn't want to say it, after all he owned his life to Palutena, who was taking over his sister. It was fucked up situation, we were against the strongest possible enemies and we were not ready to fight, we lost another one of us, and I was sure that we were also running out of time to think of a solution.

"You said that the vaccines won't work." I had to change the subject "Why?"

"It's just like a virus." He said "The first time you take a shot it kills most of the virus, but if one resists it develops immunity. How long do you think Gabriel has taken it? Now that Tabuu is awake…"

"…It is unlikely to take effect again." Maquiel concluded "And it's the same for Melanie I guess, after all Palutena has been given a lot of it, as a matter of fact, if Melanie didn't let Palutena take her over she would still be around us, taking the vaccine and all."

"And I'd be dead too…"

_So... without the vaccines the only way would be to separate the souls, which could only be done by Melanie… then the only hope are my aura powers. _I could shatter Tabuu's and Palutena's soul with it, but using them had an incredible high risk; Lucario might take over me. _But it might be our only chance, besides I have to save Melanie._

"_You won't save her if Lucario takes over._" Yoshi interjected "_He was on Pit's side, they wanted this to happen._"

"We're in a dead end" I thought troubled "If we fight them, even if we win, we can't save Melanie, and if we rely on my powers and Lucario takes over it's the end. Have we lost?"

"_No, not yet._" Yoshi said "_There must be a way out; we are just not seeing it._"

"Well, that's comforting."

I rubbed my face a little as if I was trying to wake up and I yawned; I was way too tired, I had spent to many energy both fighting and talking, and my body wasn't able to stand it anymore, I was about to fall asleep.

"If this is everything you had to say, you may be gone." Matthew said.

"I know that you are angry, and you have every reason to be…"

"Angry?" Matthew asked while laughing coldly "Oh, I'm not angry Fox, I'm furious. That guy used to be my best friend as a kid, and now…"

"I know that!" Fox interjected "He has fallen! He is now sunk in despair! I know he is not the person you used to known, and he isn't the person I bestowed my powers in, but it's because of that that I want your help! I want to open his eyes so that he can go back to be that person."

"Even if he does" Matthew replied "it will make no difference to me. He will always be the guy who killed my mother. Can you imagine the pain of losing your father, Fox? And then, when your life is finally being fixed, to lose your mother?"

"I don't…" he replied with sorrow "I don't have parents, I don't have a family, all what I have left is Gabriel… can't you spare me a little? He…"

"Stop it!" Maquiel interjected "This is going nowhere! Fox, you are only embarrassing yourself and Matthew's answer won't change. You are asking the wrong person; he won't save Gabriel, and as a matter of fact neither I want to."

Fox seemed about to break into cry, but then Maquiel kept talking.

"However" there is always a "but" I thought "If he happens to be saved by our struggle then we won't kill him."

Fox finally raised his head to stare at Maquiel with hope; his eyes were red by the great amount of tears he shed.

"Once that happens, I want you to take him away from here and to make sure he won't ever come back. He is not allowed in this house, and he is not to be seen by us."

"Th…Thanks." Fox said while bowing "You have my word."

"Ok, then." Maquiel said while looking at me "I see that Robert won't be able to keep it together, so…"

By the time she was about to finish her sentence I fell asleep. I was too tired and I felt like all the sounds were being turned down until there was none.

By the time I woke up I noticed I was covered by several blankets, and my body didn't feel like moving. My eyes blinked a couple of times before I realized I was on Melanie's room. I got up while wondering how much time I slept, because I felt really fresh, and stronger; after using the final form it seemed that I myself was strengthened and this was the first instance I had to realize that. My body felt lighter, I moved faster and I reacted quicker, but it wasn't enough to beat Palutena and Tabuu, I knew as much, still it was better than before.

I opened the door and I noticed that my clothes where in front of me, washed, ironed, cleaned; then I came to realize that I was wearing pajamas. I face palmed, did Maquiel took my clothes off and put me pajamas on? Or even worse, was it Matthew?

"Oh, hell no!" I said out loud.

I left the clothes inside and I was about to dress up, but then I realized I stunk, and my stomach roared with might, I was starving. I left the clothes over the bed and I walked up towards the living room where I met Matthew sat down on the couch.

"You're finally up." Matthew commented calmly "You've been sleeping a whole week."

"So that explains why I'm so hungry." I said while sighing "Who changed my clothes?"

"Fox."

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"

"I'm kidding." Matthew said laughing "I did it."

"WHAT?"

"You fell for it again." He replied "Maquiel did it, and this time is serious."

"I won't be able to see her face again."

"What? Do you think is the first time she has seen the private area?"

"No, I'm very sure you have already introduced it to her." I said while blushing "But, isn't it a trouble? She is your bride to be."

"That's why it isn't a trouble; she merely did it so we could wash your clothes, I have nothing to feel jealous of, I know how much she loves me. In by the way, you should also consider taking a shower."

"I'll have it on my mind." I said while I sat next to him "So, what happened with Fox in the end?"

"He and Meta Knight, and of course that includes Alex, are staying in Maquiel's house along with Maquiel's family, in order to be away from the battlefield."

"So they know."

"It wasn't easy to explain though" Matthew said while sighing "Maquiel's mom seemed about to suffer a heart attack and Peter wasn't helping much, he just startled the same words, tried to figure out everything. Sarah was very helpful, as she already knew she saved me and Maquiel a lot of explanations."

"I'm sure it wasn't easy for Rachel to leave her daughter in the battlefield."

"It took us five days to finally make her realize it was the best. I thought we wouldn't make it."

I could imagine, after meeting her I knew she wasn't the kind of woman who backed off easily, she would rather be in the battlefield with her daughter rather than being cast aside, even if she was powerful. She was really like Maquiel, a strong character and independency.

"It's near dawn." Matthew commented.

"You seem calmer than you did… last week."

"Well, after six days of no sleeping I was finally beaten by the tiredness and slept like a baby for a whole day, so that really helped me. Maquiel was also tired of my attitude, I had been impossible."

"When aren't you?" I asked "You are always blaming yourself for everything, you want to do everything by yourself and you try to make everyone else step back. That's really tiresome, you know? Like the rest of us don't exist."

"So that's the kind of person I've become." He commented "You remember how I used to be?"

"Arrogant and obnoxious, yeah, I remember that guy."

"It's amazing how much we can change."

"Yeah, yeah." I said while getting up "I'm going to take a shower and then breakfast, we can keep this heart to heart later."

"Robert."

I halted and I turned back; Matthew was looking at me with strange eyes, I couldn't tell what they meant.

"I'm glad you're awake."

And I also wasn't able to figure what the hell that meant.

By the next hour I was good as new; I took the shower and dressed up, I ate breakfast and I felt like I could run a marathon. It was already morning by the time it happened.

We were on the living room when a strange presence filled the whole house. I gulped; there was a really heavy pressure on all of us.

"They're here." Maquiel said.

"I wonder why now." Matthew commented while he prepared for battle "On this entire week they waited until we were fully recovered."

"Who cares? It's better this way." I said "Let's go."

"Just like that?" Matthew asked "What are we going to do?"

"We are not the only people here." I said "You have a baby brother to think of. Even if we can't defeat them we have to at least make them back off."

_Now, that's the tricky part, how exactly do we do that? _I didn't know, but I sure wanted to see how Melanie was doing, I think that was all the reason why I was so hasty about fighting them off.

We left the house and ran towards the place where this feeling of heavy burden was coming; I wanted to get there as soon as possible, my heart beat fast as I imagined all kind of scenarios.

The city was lonely; there was no a single soul on the streets besides us, and it seemed like there wasn't any people at all living here; just what the hell happened while I was sleeping? But before I could ask that question we found in the middle of the street both Tabuu and Palutena in Gabriel's and Melanie's bodies.

The environment was all tense, like always, just that this time I wasn't able to keep my head cool like I used to, because when I saw the desire to kill in Melanie's eyes I noticed that I couldn't think straight, it was way too personal now.

"Keep it together, Robert." Matthew said "They are Tabuu and Palutena, we can't go against them with hesitation."

"She's your sister!" I yelled.

"And that's way I'm calmed, she needs me to be calmed."

For an instance it was like we shifted places; I was usually the guy asking for everybody to calm down, but I was… what was happening to me? When I saw Melanie like that I felt like my heart was being pumped with fire…

_Why is she so important to me? Where is all this rage coming? I want to tear Palutena out of her body, I want to…_

"_You want to save her, brother, because you love her._"

The words that Yoshi just said on my mind echoed for a while. And so I remembered Wolf's words: _Your heart is empty. You understand what love is, but you haven't felt it. You know what friendship is, but you have never felt it. Isn't it cold at nights? Isn't it sad how you try to love your mother and find yourself unable to do so?_ Yoshi seemed to laugh at my thought.

"_I knew he was wrong all along. You are not a puppet Robert, you have feelings, and those feelings can make you strong too!_"

I trusted Yoshi, I knew he wasn't just trying to cheer me up, he was stating a fact. I gave a good glimpse at Vatra as I stepped forward.

"You're right." I said to Matthew as my eyes met with Tabuu and Palutena "I won't allow me to hesitate any longer."

Matthew and Maquiel both stepped forward too and smiled at me; Matthew throw me Vatra while he gave another step forward. They didn't doubt on attacking first. They shape shifted at the moment and I took the chance to brandish Vatra against Palutena, while Matthew and Maquiel went against Tabuu.

"You face me all by yourself?" asked Palutena surprised.

"Of course," I replied smiling "I'm the one who can reap you out of there after all."

Palutena jumped backwards; her eyes were analyzing me. I knew she wasn't going to go all out with me, if she wanted to killed me she could have done already, I noticed that she wanted to test me.

She extended her hand against me and white large energy arrow was thrown at me. I stopped it with Vatra and with mighty strength I sent it back against Palutena who stopped it with her arm, but not without having her hand a bit cut. Yet she smiled.

"My, my." She said "You are really scary, aren't you Robert?"

At the moment she started talking I ran towards her and I brandished the sword; just as I expected it was rejected wit a bare hand and it was sent flying, but that was a perfect timing for a fast shape shift. A split second chance came for me to hit her with my tail, and as she was sent upwards I also took another split second chance to enter in my final form. My body turned red and I used my speed to get on her back and kick her with might. Luckily I didn't let any mid second slide and I was able to deal some damage, but I couldn't stop yet, taking advantage of my speed as red Yoshi I took another chance to stomp on her waist, then I would spread my wings and throw a huge fireball to exhaust her, but before I could do so she disappeared from my range of vision. Several white arrows were launched at me at high speed, yet I was faster. I was kind of pissed because I could tell she was playing with me.

"_If she's playing with us then she is underestimating us too, let's take advantage of that!_"

Just as he said I took the chance to change to another form and became yellow.

"Light Yoshi?" Palutena asked surprised "What can you do in this form?"

Just as the name says, "light Yoshi" glows too bright or better said, as bright as I wanted him to be; the glowing was enough to blind Palutena for a second, the very same second I used to change into red Yoshi and kick her on the cheek. She stepped backwards and smiled.

"You are full of tricks, aren't you boy?" she said calmly "Show me what else you got."

I didn't like the way she was taunting me, neither the fact that I was hurting her so easily, something was very, very wrong and if I didn't figure it out she would probably kill me before.

"You scared?"

"_The hell I'm not!_" I replied.

But I could feel my own hesitation while running against her, I could feel the fear of hurting Melanie, and yet I couldn't understand it, why did I care about her so much? Why did I love her?

* * *

><p>"Be careful Maquiel, we can't take him lightly."<p>

I was expecting Matthew to be a bit overprotective, but at the same time I had to understand that the enemy in front of us wasn't just Gabriel; it was hard for me to see him like this, and it was also hard for me to think even without Tabuu's power Gabriel had killed Matthew once. I gulped, just like Matthew said there was no time to hesitate.

"Are you surprised?" Tabuu asked "Surely this isn't the best vessel, but at least it has some affinity with me."

"What kind of affinity?" Matthew asked.

The fact that Matthew didn't attack yet meant that he was analyzing Gabriel's face while Tabuu talked, maybe looking for some remains of him, or maybe trying to figure some way to attack Tabuu.

"Don't you remember all the times he met you on purple platforms? Have you never wondered how that came to happen?"

"I didn't really care." Matthew admitted "At the time I thought anything was possible."

"You are such naïve." He replied smiling "He has the power to create subspace."

"Then why do you say he is not the best vessel?" I asked "If he has such power…"

"Robert is my vessel." He said firmly "And while I could overwhelm his soul and take over it, it's not the same as he handing me his whole powers." Then he pointed at us "You don't really understand what you all are, don't you? You don't understand why the five of you are the only candidates for being our vessel, and mostly, why Matthew and Robert as the best candidates for it."

"Then tell me!" Matthew demanded as he touched my palm "Tell me what we are!"

I noticed that the touching was a sign, so that I could attack him when he wasn't paying attention, a plan that I knew it wouldn't work, but that was worth a shot.

"Have you ever noticed that the story centers in the five of you?" He asked "Everybody can die, everybody can disappear, but not matter in how much hassle you get you haven't got killed, even Matthew who almost got his heart out of his chest had to be fixed, and you know why that is? Do you understand what is this all about? This is all about you fighting each other!"

Those words… I heard those words before. At the moment I heard it I decided not to believe, but now… I wasn't sure as Tabuu spoke.

"Is not curious? Matthew has fought Gabriel, Melanie, Robert and Maquiel in all kind of circumstances, and so Maquiel have fought Gabriel, Melanie, Robert and Matthew in some others. Robert also fought those four, and so Melanie and Gabriel. It doesn't matter the side you pick, you always end up fighting some of you! And so the comrades around you might get killed, but not you! You are the fuel that keeps this world alive."

Matthew and I shared a quick glimpse; when I saw his eyes he let me know that he still calm and that I had to keep it together. I was just waiting for the chance, I had to act quickly.

"Palutena and I are fighting for survival, why do you think she was so set on calling me? We are not enemies! We are gods who will ensure survival by fighting each other, but to do so we need vessel, and among them we need those who have the same amount of power so that we can ensure the conflict never ends. Of course Gabriel and Melanie could do it for now, but the choice has always been thought to be Robert and Matthew."

"Why?" Matthew asked; I noticed in his face that some rage was coming from some deeps "Why me and Robert? Why not me and Maquiel? Or Maquiel and Robert? And why I have to be Palutena's vessel and Robert yours?"

"You two are like brothers." Tabuu said calmly while Matthew was about to lose it "You've been rivals since you were kids, but you always cared for each other, yet you two fought every single time to become the best; the two of you are meant to keep fighting! Can't you see it? It's the tragedy of the two brothers! They love each other, but they'll end up killing each other. But just as Wolf got in our way, we had to conceive a plan B, and that's when it was thought that if Maquiel grew stronger then she could fight you, eventually she would become Palutena and the circumstances would be created so you would become Tabuu, and it would become the tragedy of the love that couldn't last; two lovers fighting forever to keep the world spinning."

"So this is all what this is about?" I asked "A tragedy? All the fights, all the way we got through, all that so it can end like a tragedy? That doesn't explain why you chose them."

"It does." Tabuu replied "Palutena and I are comrades, siblings, so if we want to be kept in a human host to fight forever in the tragedy of our eternal struggle, what's the best, but to choose those two boys, who care of each other as brothers and that are meant to fight forever? Or the couple that will never be able to last because of the eternal conflict? That's the true affinity we're looking for, that's why Melanie and Gabriel can't hold us forever."

"What will happen to them?" Matthew asked at the edge of rage.

"They'll become entangled in the conflict eventually, and they'll die as Palutena and I fight to keep the world spinning."

The chance came when he started talking. His whole sight was set on Matthew and he didn't even noticed when I smash x evolved and kicked his head throwing him forward, and just as he was sent flying Matthew also smash x evolved, but this time he was not only wearing Mario's suit, but Wolf's claws appeared on the gloves, his tail escaped from his pants, and two wolf ears appeared on his hat. Matthew didn't hesitate on start punching Tabuu with burning fist, but just as he got to the third kick a purple wave sent him backwards, but he recovered in mid air while I headed towards hand to hand combat. I first threw him a punch with my left hand, which he stopped, but just at that time I extended my right arm and the cannon around it released a Zero Laser. It was enough to make him step backwards, but not enough to inflict any real damage, then Matthew appeared fast behind him with a hammer covered on flames and he left it fall against Tabuu. I saw how it hit his head, it seemed like it was going to crack it, but when his head stopped it he just stood still and he grabbed it and threw Matthew away, at that very same time I ran towards to punch him, and although I did at the very same time my fist hit his face I was thrust backward by blue waves that were spread out of his face; I recovered fast and manage to dodge the next flow of waves that were thrown against me as Matthew appeared behind Tabuu and pierced his chest with his claws. Gabriel's body was ignited in what seemed to be hell flames, but he smiled, and he seemed like it couldn't die. At the time he raised his hand I shot a Zero Laser; Matthew stepped backward and we stayed at our backs, waiting for Tabuu to appear from the mist.

"He is still out there. We must be careful."

"Is it there a way to kill it?" I asked.

"Our best shoot is the vaccine; we need a clear chance to…"

"_Do you really think you can win?_"

The voice was sent into our mind, and it scared us because it sounded like Robert.

"It's just Tabuu messing with us." Matthew reminded me "It's not Robert."

But then in front of our sight appeared a Yoshi with four wings and a chest covered with Lucario's fur and burning blue eyes. I started shaking at the time I saw him.

"No way…" I said. "Robert…"

"_Do you regret? Sending me to fight Palutena on my own?_" he said laughing "_You knew this would happen Maquiel, yet you were blinded by your trust._"

I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. I fell on my knees, but then Matthew stood me up right away.

"It's not time to lose out cool, Maquiel!" he said "If he is Robert, we have to…"

But before he could keep going Robert tackled him and sent him away from me as Tabuu appeared in front of me. At the moment our eyes met I saw him with burning rage.

"You are so fragile." He said "Playing with your mind…"

And then it happened; he shape shifted, and he became into Matthew, but his eyes were red, he was covered in Wolf's fur, claws grew from his hand, as his hair and wolf's ears grew from it.

"… is quite easy."

* * *

><p>At the moment I got up I was all tired up. My body was covered with my own blood and I could barely move my arms, my hands held Vatra tightly, but I knew I couldn't withstand more of a battle for much longer.<p>

"What's wrong Robert?" Palutena asked "Out of tricks?"

I wasn't even able to answer; I fell on my knee and coughed blood. Wounds covering my knees, my arms, my forehead, I could barely see anything but my blood in the way as I raised the blade.

"It's honorable for you to keep fighting in that condition." She said "But we don't have any intention of killing you, any of you in fact."

I wanted to reply, I wanted to taunt her, to insult her, but the words couldn't leave my mouth, I breathed fast as I realized that Yoshi was as or more exhausted than I was, because he couldn't even think in a logic path any longer, maybe I used too much of his power, I myself was barely able to keep my consciousness.

"I'm glad to see that you could keep up this long." Palutena said. "Now look behind you."

I noticed that a huge blaze of flames was realized in middle of the battle area of Matthew and Maquiel; they must have gone with their all. And then it happened; the one who came from the flames was Tabuu with Matthew and Maquiel in his hands, unconscious in their human shape. He left them in front of me and I was about to fall, but then he stared at me and he raised a hand. It was at that very moment when fear overcame me.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" I cried out loud "DON'T KILL ME!"

Just at the time I left those words out I realized what I just said, I don't want to die? This entire time I just thought that I badly wanted to die, but even at this moment there was a side of me that desperately wanted to live. I was ashamed of myself; even more when Tabuu walked passed me. I knew he didn't intend to kill me, so why? Why did I believe that? Where those words did came from?

"He is almost ready." Tabuu commented.

"Then let's leave theses kids alone." Palutena said "They need to grow more desperate."

They just vanished from our sight, they left us behind, and I fell next to Matthew and Maquiel, ashamed and defeated, wondering what we could do next, and whatever it was, I didn't know it yet.


	12. Nameless and Reborn 3, The Mirrored

**Nameless and reborn 3 [The mirrored]**

"Tabuu really managed to trick us." Matthew said pissed "He took us unguarded."

Two days happened after the fight and we were still shocked, but we were worse than just that, we were lonely. Matthew's house had never been as empty as it was now, no smashers, no Sophie, no Salaric, and no Melanie, just the three of us. Maquiel's family stayed at her old house so that the enemy wouldn't attack them in an attempt to kill us, taking care of Matthew's baby brother Alex. The environment was so cold, and I could see that Maquiel was constantly seeing me with fear.

"What's wrong with me?" I asked out loud.

"Nothing." Maquiel replied.

"There is something wrong!" I said out loud "I froze when I saw you lying on the ground, I should have been able to react… in the end…"

I remained silent for a while. Matthew stared at me concerned.

"In the end what?" he asked

"In the end I'm not match for you." I said in a low voice "I'm the weakest of all."

"That's not true!" Matthew said.

"Don't lie to me!" I replied pissed "While you two stood strong against Tabuu going at its fullest, Palutena just toyed with me! I can't do a thing!"

Matthew walked towards me and he grabbed me from the collar.

"That's not like you at all Robert."

"I know." I said calmly "I thought the day would never come when I recognize you are better than me… but if it is as you said, as Tabuu said…" it was hard for me to say it "Then I recognize you are stronger! We always fought, so that one day, one of us recognized the other, that's why we were rivals, now I'm ending this stupid fight. Matthew you are the strongest, you always were, you were the hero, and you will save us all, I can't…"

Matthew punched me on the face; he seemed quite angry at me.

"How dare you?" he asked me "How can you fall this low Robert?"

I stared at him puzzled as he talked.

"I'm not going to take it!" he said "Not from a scared broken man!"

I stood up and as our eyes met I understood what he meant; he didn't want me to say these words in my state, I was far too pathetic back then, and I noticed that he could barely stand looking at me they way I was.

"_Why do you always think the worst of yourself?_" Yoshi asked.

"Four years ago, in the subspace, after I killed Roy I asked you to hit me and you did; I needed it. I hoped the time wouldn't come for you to need one too."

He hit me again, but before I fell he grabbed my collar and he stood me up.

"The first of for what you've done, the second for my anger and this third one…"

"… It'll be for me to get over it." I said as a faint smile came to my face "I heard that before."

The third hit came and this time I was surprised that blood didn't come around my jaw, after all it was the hell of a punch. I remembered how I did exactly the same four years ago to him, saying those exact same words. It was then when I realized how bad I was.

"Robert, since we were kids I always admired how you were able to pull it together." Matthew said "You had a troublesome life, just like I did, but you never let that overcome you, you always stood cool and strong, even when you were at your most critical times you always pulled it together. Don't lose that."

"You are so wrong." I said weakly "You don't have any idea of how broken I am, how… how weak I was…"

"I don't care." He said "You are Robert Jared Wolf, and I'm no more and no less than you, because we're equals."

I stared at him; I noticed that it wasn't easy for him to say that, after all he always wanted to surpass me, and so I wanted to, but now… as he spoke I realized that he was right. Ever since we were kids, no matter who won or lose at our battles, we always were the same.

"I lost almost everyone." He said "I don't want to lose you too, you are like a brother to me, damn it!"

I had to turn my eyes aside for a second; I saw him that way too, I cared about Matthew like he was my brother as well, even when I never recognized it, even when I tried to convince myself that I hated him, I just… I was just looking up to him, I wanted to be like him, and now I realized that he wanted the exact same thing. I laughed; I couldn't control it, I just had to laugh, because all this time we've been trying to do the exact same thing.

"What is it?" Maquiel asked confused.

"Ha, it's nothing." I replied "It's just that… I never thought he would say it," I said while a faint smile came "that we are a family… a very crappy one, but a family nevertheless."

Maquiel and Matthew smiled as well and the environment seemed to calm down a little bit.

"_We have to get stronger brother._" Yoshi said "_So that we can protect our family. We need to overcome your fear and turn it into power, so I need you to come here._"

"Where?" I asked in my mind.

"_To the place your soul rest._"

"Give me a minute, and then take me there." I replied.

I knew that I was about to fall unconscious so I had to warn Matthew and Maquiel about it first so they wouldn't believe something was going wrong.

"Guys, Yoshi is pulling me to…"

"… the place where your soul resides?" Matthew asked.

"How on earth did you know?"

"Lucky guess." He said smiling "Go, get stronger and once we get over with all this I want to fight you Robert. Let's have a fair showdown as Mario and Yoshi, like in the old days."

"Alright." I said "I'll mop the floor with you."

"I'll use your tongue to sweep."

"Just go there already!" Maquiel interjected "Sorry, but I know you guys and if I stayed quiet you two would just keep going."

We both laughed; it was truth, even when we left our rivalry aside we could always fall back into it. I landed myself on the couch and waited. _Ok Yoshi, take me in._

One second I had my eyes closed and saw just darkness and then I felt like I was being pulled out of the darkness to travel to what seemed the deep space. I could not see my body, I could just feel how energy surrounded me and took around the very dark space around my body, and it was like there were many layers before the place I had to go.

Once I finally arrived I opened my eyes and I found myself in a very different place. The ground was covered on glass, but a great part of it was shattered. There were some trees that came out of the broken glass, but they had no leaves, only the empty brown and somewhat burnt trunk.

Yoshi was in front of me with some sorrow in his eyes.

"_This is where your soul is. The broken glass is a manifestation of your broken dreams, the trees are the hope that laid in you even after your dreams broke, but then something burnt off those trees. Ever since then you've been weaker than ever, vulnerable, and in a lot of pain._"

"It's a very gloom place." I said while I stepped forward; surprisingly the shatter glass didn't cut my feet while walking "How could you withstand being here?"

"_Those trees once were full of leaves and they glowed along with hope, it was very warm. I held to that, and I got to know the best of you, the part of you that loves me as a brother, the same one that loves Melanie and cares for Matthew and Maquiel. You always thought you were cold hearted, but I could always see that you were not, that's why I always believed in you._"

"I see…" I said a bit embarrassed "You could see what no one could… even I wasn't able to see it."

"_Robert, smashers and shape shifters shares an affinity, through that affinity a bond is created, a bond stronger than anything. In order to grow stronger you need to bond. When you developed the final smash it was through the resolution of your future, you saw the way you wanted to grow as a fighter and you let me show you the way. The final form was achieved when you were so affected by Matthew's death and so worried about Melanie that you gave all your powers to me. All those time you handed me a side of your soul, of your heart, and that made our bond stronger. So, if you want to take the next step towards the Smash X Evolution…_"

"We need to bond once more." I concluded.

"_Right, but this time is different. This time you have to take my power, you have to force it out, to be able to take my power to yourself, which means…_"

At that very moment I saw that Yoshi's wings were spread and I knew what it meant.

"That I have to fight you."

Before I could do anything Yoshi was already in front of my, faster than I could tell. I was about to defend, but his wings covered my body.

"_You can't grow strong while being afraid._" He said in a severe tone "_Let me take the root of your despair!_"

The wings held me tighter and it brought me closer to Yoshi's body; his short arm reached my waist and then he pierced it. I screamed in pain as I felt how he took something from it and then, with mighty strength, he removed it. His wings released me and I fell backwards while Yoshi threw away what seemed to be a blue piece of cloth.

I got up weakly while I saw that below that cloth someone came out. That one was me.

I felt afraid of him, because his eyes were not pale blue, but dark blue, burning in aura, and his arms were covered in Lucario's fur, and so was his face, there was an "X" like fur formed around the nose reaching the cheeks and the forehead. He looked at me amused by my terror.

"_You're terrorized by your own aura powers._" Yoshi explained "_Lucario became a part of us and since then you've been afraid that he will take over, but he can't if you can control those powers._"

"So I need to beat that guy too?" I asked while frowning.

"Beat that guy too?" he asked still amused "I don't think you get it Robert."

"_So far I restrained those powers so that you wouldn't be controlled, however it's time you take it over! This time…_"

"Yoshi and I will hit you at once."

My eyes opened wide. Yoshi turned into green sparks and he flew in the air towards the other me, who grew wings at the very moment Yoshi touched him, and one of his eyes became completely green, matching Yoshi's scent.

I was speechless, I didn't know what to think of it, I didn't know what to say, or how to fight if I had neither aura nor Yoshi's power.

"HERE WE GO, ROBERT!"

That guy flapped his wings and I fell pray of terror.

* * *

><p>"He's been out an entire hour," I said "it must have just started"<p>

When it was about soul's time could be a very relative thing. A mind could act faster or slower while being inside one's soul, it could have already passed a month or just a minute for Robert, there was no way to know, we could just wait.

"When he wakes up" Maquiel commented "The three of us will have reached the smash x evolution… maybe then we can defeat them."

"Yeah, but we can't fall behind either." I remembered her "I haven't used Wolf's whole power, as he is asleep inside my soul there are a lot of things about his powers that I haven't figure it. You also have Pit powers now; you need to make sure that they won't take over."

"I know." She replied "So, let's…"

Maquiel, I know this is not the time to interject like this in the story. I know that this is very abrupt, but I need you here. The whole city is a battle field; there are no people but us. Don't worry, they are safe, I made sure of it; however I really need you to come. It's me, it's Isaac.

That message was really abrupt, it came out of nowhere, and it was imprinted on our brain like if it was a memory. I took a good look at Maquiel who seemed troubled trying to figure out the best way to summarize a very long explanation.

"Isaac helped me out very much after we got you back." She said while trying to choose the right words "He set Robert free from Lucario's control, he told me to rebel and kill Pit, and he somehow guided me. This might be my chance to pay him back."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you need to understand your power."

"Maquiel, there's no way you can convince me to let you go, I…"

"What about Robert then?" she asked pointing him "Leaving him alone so that Tabuu and Palutena can play with him?"

She seemed really troubled, but so I was. I didn't want to let her go, I wanted her to stay, I had a very bad feeling about it, and I was scared of losing her. No, I couldn't… after so much we were finally a couple, we would get married and create a future, how could she…?

"Stay." I asked "Please Maquiel, don't go."

"I have to."

"Then I won't let you."

* * *

><p>My face was bleeding; a swing of his hand, covered in aura, seemed like a swing of a sword. He superficially cut through my forehead to the nose. I covered the wound with my hand as I tried to think of a way to stop the bleeding, but he gave me no time to do so; I had to jump to my left as he rushed forward to cut my waist. I managed to barely dodge, and then I started running, while I tried to figure out a way to fight without shape shifting into Yoshi, and without my aura powers. The only thing I knew was Judo, and although I knew it was no super power, it was my only way to defend myself.<p>

He seemed to be amused by my change of tactics and he headed towards me faster than what my eyes could read, he was in front of me in a mere split second, however I was able to grab his wrist before the hand pierced my chest and then I pulled it down to make him lose balance as my left fist punched him in the face, then before he could react I kept punching his face as fast as I could possible do to avoid him from attacking, but I noticed he was smiling as if he was toying with me, and when I was about to grab his neck and pound him in the ground he flapped his wings with might and thrust me back in the air. I was flying backwards and before I could even fall he was already at my back and he punched my stomach, pounding me to the ground with might. I coughed blood and I thought I would throw up, he pounded when I was three feet above the ground, I even expected my head to explode or lose consciousness when it hit the floor, but there I was, still conscious in the glass floor, which didn't shatter.

He kicked my waist and I was sent flying backwards again, and he appeared at my back again to kick my face.

He was beating me to a pulp, in a way nobody has ever done it before. When he finally left me alone for a minute, I tried to stand up and failed a few times before I could. My body was hurt, I was filled with bruises around it and I found myself almost unable to breathe. I thought he would talk or that he would finish me off, but he did neither, he was waiting for me to act. And so I tried to think; Yoshi would never put me in an impossible win situation, so there had to be a way for me to defeat that guy. I trusted him; I had to believe there was a way. The other guy seemed to know what I was thinking and he glared at me.

"Trust him?" He asked me "How long will you depend on him? How long until you realize what you have to do? HOW LONG ROBERT?"

It was strange; he hit me with might, but every hit I received I felt more than just physical pain, every single fist was filled with anger and sorrow, feelings I knew too well. If he wanted to defeat me he could have done it already, he was that strong, but instead he was playing around, hurting my guts, shattering my pride as he finally grabbed my neck and held me in the air. Our eyes met and I realized that he had the exact same expression I used to have when I was a kid. He was in pain, he wanted to take over the pain, he wanted to finally dive into darkness and drown. Then I came to realize it; he was that side of me that wanted to let my powers to take over me, so that I wouldn't feel pain anymore, that side where Lucario reigned and took over. Lucario's soul was inside him, telling him to kill me, however the kid there refused, he tried to give me a hint on how to control it.

He dropped me in the glass floor and I coughed as I tried to recover, as I tried to figure out how to end. Although I was near to understand it, it was already over; a giant blue sword rose from the glass floor and my back was attached to it like a metal to a magnet, and then a second sword appeared out of nowhere and it crossed the air until it passed the first sword and my arms raised trapped on them as my back on the first sword.

"Too late." The other man said with sorrow "YOU DIE!"

He flapped his wings and in a matter of split seconds he pierced my chest with his hand. I coughed blood, I closed my eyes, and I was sure I would disappear for good; however there was a quick flashback that ran through my head in less than a second:

"_Mom shouldn't be able to find me. This way she'll learn to care about me."_

_It was a very sad thought; however it was how I felt back then. I was walking down the streets of the great Santiago, the city of concrete, smoke and pale blue sky, which announces sorrow when it becomes dark. I was far from my house, I didn't want to know anything about mom, I was too hurt. I was walking near by a bridge when I noticed another ten year old I knew was around._

_Curly red hair, pale skin, tall for his age, and tears in his face; it had to be Matthew, he always cried, for almost everything, although this time was different and I could tell it. He lost someone. It was the same look I had when I was seven, the same saddened look staring at the muddy water, wondering if by a jump everything could be fixed._

_I despised him, and he despised me, but I walked next to him anyway, just because it felt kind of good to be around someone who shares your pain, someone who understands what is going on._

"_Why are you crying this time?" I asked trying to show myself cool._

"_What do you care?"_

_We share a look, and for the very first time in all our years as Judo classmates, we seemed to fully understand each other. There was a minute of silence as he stared at a Wolf crest in his hand._

"_That's a cool crest." I commented._

"_Dad gave it to me." He explained "He said that I should give it to you."_

_I frowned; although it made more sense for me to hold that crest, as my family name was Wolf, I could not understand why Matthew's dad would like me to have that crest._

"_He always said that we should make peaces, become friends, so he said that it might become easier if I gave you this."_

_He couldn't understand how important that crest was to me, he could not understand how my last name made me feel closer to dad, a father I could not see because of my mom. So "Wolf" was the only thing I had to make myself feel closer to him, and that crest was an item that, just by holding it, made me remember how the man always sought for my happiness. I accepted it and I held it tight in my hands._

"_Thanks." I said smiling faintly, for the first time in a long time "You don't know how much this mean."_

"_It's not like it'll solve anything." Matthew said "You have to change if we have to get along."_

"_No, it won't probably change anything." I said laughing "But enemies can hang out at times, agree to a temporary truce, and then we can go back to the way we were."_

"_Then today is a truce." Matthew concluded "But I'm still going to beat you one day."_

"_Keep dreaming, cry baby."_

_We needed each other as rivals; it kept our minds out of the pain. I never admitted it and I know Matthew never had as well, but that was the day we became friends… no, the day we became brothers, sharing the same pain, and we knew that we cared for each other, no matter how much we beat each other, no matter how much we acted as enemies and pretended to hate each other._

_The day I became Wolf Matthew was deeply hurt, because I betrayed him, and the day he took my place I was also hurt, because he was leaving us for good as well. It all became clear for me, all our battles were a way to keep our mind out of the sadness, and every time we finished there was a side of us relieved. We were always brothers._

_There were people caring for me; the day I met Yoshi I never thought someone could get so close to me, even closer than Matthew who shared my pain, and he became even more than my brother, he was a part of me as well. Maquiel was also there, always believing in me, no matter what, even when I never trusted myself, she was there, confident that I would move forward. And there was Melanie; the kid I met, the tagalong, the peacemaker, her smile always made me feel calm, and as she grew up she became strong, she kept it together no matter what, until… until she lost almost everyone, and now she needed someone there for her, someone to help her keep it together. She needed me. She needed me! SHE NEEDED ME!_

My eyes opened wide as my hand broke free the sword and it grabbed the other guy's hand. Both swords broke into shards, setting me free. The other guy stared at me amazed, shocked, as I removed his hand from my chest.

My chest's wound started to close as my eyes burnt in green aura, and then, before he could defend himself, it was my hand the one which pierced a chest.

I had slain the aura powers, and more importantly, I had slain that side that tried to control me. I would never be able to fully kill Lucario; he became a side of me as well, however I would never fall in his control again, because the aura powers were there for me to control, just as Yoshi's powers were.

Somehow I managed to force them out, and I knew, I just somehow knew, how to draw the power of the Smash X Evolution, because it was within me.

"I feared you wouldn't make it." The guy said "I really did. You are so full of despair, of fear, but in the end you managed to get out of it."

I wasn't able to talk; I just looked at him with sorrow, with pity. I knew how much he suffered because of me, he was that sad kid on the bridge, and the one I never admitted existed, the one I always suppressed very inside of me. And now he was finally out, and I could see how Yoshi's joy filled his eyes; Yoshi was happy, because I finally made it… I moved on, and so he could become a truly part of my soul. That was the true Smash X Evolution, the moment when Yoshi stopped being Yoshi, and the moment I stopped being Robert, it was the moment in which we became one.

"You have it in you." He said as he started to faintly disappear in the air "Now you can control your powers… it's up to you."

As soon as he disappeared, Yoshi appeared behind me. We shared a smile; as soon as our eyes met we knew what the other was thinking, we knew that now we could truly be one. And as soon as I woke up in reality, a new man was born; nameless and reborn.


	13. Black & White 5 Fate is Fate

_**A/N: **__We're almost there! Hang on! Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Black &amp; White 5 [Fate is fate]<strong>

I understood it. Matthew was scared of losing more people, and I could really get it, however I had to go. He was in a predicament, he either left Robert or he came with me. I was walking through the door when he decided to come along.

"No." I asked "Please Matt, Robert is still there; he needs someone to take a look after him."

Robert then yelled in pain and Matthew ran to check him out; I hated myself for what I did next. I ran away.

I knew there was a fair chance that Matthew would leave Robert alone, but after the scream there was also that the chances that I could manage to come back were bigger than the chances of Robert being left alone by Tabuu and Palutena if he left.

Isaac gave me no hint on his whereabouts, he just told me that the entire city was a battlefield and all the people were secured, that meant that my family and Alex were fine too. I trusted him, but I needed something more.

I was walking around a park, trying to think of a lead towards Isaac.

"Maquiel! Watch out!"

I recognized the voice at the double and I flipped backwards to dodge several purple waves sent towards me. Then I saw Gabriel and Melanie in front of me. I screeched my teeth as I Smash X Evolved. Samus' thoughts became mine as I was covered in the Zero Suit, and my arms were covered in power suit cannons. I was ready to fight them off is necessary, this time I would make sure Tabuu's trick wouldn't take me by surprise.

I was expecting them to talk, they were chatty, however Tabuu just sent off waves towards me, ones I deflected with ease, and then I shot two Zero Lasers towards them. As expected they could stop them with a mere hand, but I just expected to earn enough time to move fast to their back and hit them both. And so I did, I hit them on the back and they were thrust forward as I kept myself in a defensive stance. I may could not defeat them on my own, but I could fight them until Robert and Matthew were ready to come, I just hopped Matthew wouldn't come, because at the very moment Matthew left Robert alone I knew either Tabuu or Palutena would appear there to take him, thus I had to make my best to avoid that from happening. My only goal was to earn some time.

Palutena shot several light arrows against me, but I was fast enough to dodge every single one, and when Tabuu covered Gabriel hands with mighty claws, trying to slash me, I was able to take his wrist, jump to avoid contact with claws and land a kick towards his face forcing him to step back as Palutena ran towards me with a double edged white sword she created out of nothing to stab me, however my speed was great enough to flip forwards before the blade could touch my skin and as my hands touched the ground, my legs trapped her necked, and just as a catapult, I threw her to the air. I had to recover quickly as Tabuu started throwing his waves again and I had to roll in order to avoid them.

"You have shown a better display this time." Tabuu commented.

Indeed, I was doing much better than last time, and it was because this time I knew what I had to do, and with my mind set on it I could do a lot better. However that didn't make my enemies less mighty. The two of them grabbed their hands and a blue light started consuming everything surrounding me; I was soon left blind in the middle of battlefield, unsure of what was going to happen next, but that light gave me a sensation so close to death that I was already preparing myself to die. But I didn't die, nothing happen.

I opened my eyes and discovered that the light was gone, and there was a man in front of me, covering me.

"MATTHEW!"

But it wasn't him; I realized that his hair was blond, almost like gold, and when he turned back and stared at me smiling his eyes were more calmed. His whole body seemed to be about to break and he fell onto my arms. I stared at Tabuu and Palutena and noticed that they were actually terrified. They were too scared, more than what I've ever could possibly imagine.

"You…" Palutena mumbled "Isaac!"

"Damn it!" Tabuu said while his hands became fists "Why are you here? You are not supposed to intervene!"

"Maybe…" Isaac replied calmed "However I came to."

The whole world around us fell apart; the sky shattered like it was broken glass, the earth was consumed by darkness, the city crumbled as if it was hit by a massive earthquake, and all I could see before me was Isaac, even Tabuu and Palutena fell on the darkness that covered the earth. Then, in a matter of seconds everything went back to normal, on a blink of an eye I was with Isaac inside some store in the city and he seemed tired.

"What the…"

I wasn't even able to finish that question, my mind could not comprehend the situation I was put in, however Isaac seemed to be happy about something and smiled as he sit on the floor in front of me.

"Tabuu and Palutena won't bother for now." He said "It's my chance."

"Chance for what?" I asked "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm the author."

I remained silent for a second, while trying to understand his words; the author, author of what? Of our story? At the time I rejected the idea immediately, but deep down I knew that it was true, that he wasn't lying.

"What do you mean?"

"All of this… wasn't supposed to be real." He said "I started writing this story last year, in front of my computer desk, as a fan fiction…"

"I… wait! Does this mean…?"

"This story is no longer a story, is reality." He said a bit coldly "From the moment Matthew agreed to be with Wolf I was inserted in this story as a character as well. Have you never wondered why people don't seem to get in the way? How the circumstances are always convenient, and how nobody unrelated from the smashers' battle comes across the battlefield? It is because they are in another layer of reality."

"You can't expect me to believe this…" I said afraid "You just can't! After all I've felt… you're telling me it's all a fake!"

"I'm not!" he replied "It's all real, what you feel is actually real, because I feel it as well, that's why it's written."

"Then you're messed up badly!" I yelled with might "Killing off so much people, tearing up families, creating such a bizarre drama…"

"Listen to yourself." He said calmed "You've just acknowledge this is my story."

"I'm just saying if it were the case!" I replied "If you are writing this down, then change everything! Turn it into a happy ending, make Palutena bring everyone back, and live happily ever after."

"I could if I wasn't stuck here." He replied as he turned his eyes aside. "Since I've entered this world I've been unable to change anything, it's not like back home when I could just erase and re-write, I'm actually inside the thing."

"Look at me!" I said while I grabbed his shoulders "You have any idea of what are you saying? This means it's all because of you! All my pain, all the deaths…"

"If it was up to me Matthew and Robert would be dead by now."

I opened my eyes wide and I was about to punch him in the face, but there was something else into those words; there was something relieving.

"Matthew was never supposed to accept Wolf's offer!" he claimed "Robert was supposed to be took over by Wolf and then he would become Tabuu and strike you, and Matthew would deliver himself to Palutena to fight back. As a result they would have both died, the smashers would have returned to Zero World and you would ended up looking for Matthew as you could not accept his death. That was the original ending of this story. However the events changed, Matthew took a choice of his free will and since then I lost my influence in the story. This is not about what I wrote any longer, it's about what you decide."

That relief was because of acknowledging free will, to know that we had freedom. I shed a tear of joy; it wasn't just a story, it was our world, and we weren't being pulled by some deity strings anymore, we were free. And so Matthew could live on, he wasn't tied to that destiny anymore.

"So… Palutena wanted to take over Matthew…"

"…Because if she does and if Tabuu takes over Robert they can ensure this world won't fall apart." Isaac explained "But that's not what I want!"

"What do you want then?"

"For you to be able to build the future you want!" he claimed "Since I got here I could feel what's in your hearts… you are not just characters to me, you are the real thing! People with feeling and suffering, I felt it all, and I want this world to go on, but not like that! That's why I decided to intervene."

"Why didn't you intervene before?"

"I did." He said smiling "Remember? When I told you to rebel."

I remembered it; that moment was crucial so I would not fall in despair, so that Palutena wouldn't have took over me, but it took Melanie instead. Then I had a realization and Isaac hurried up and talked before I could ask.

"If I intervene I break up into million pieces and I become part of your environment, in others words I become the world itself. I expect to break any minute now. I can't die because I'm the story itself, so I took advantage of that and I saved you and dragged you here in middle of the darkness."

"Can't you pull Tabuu and Palutena out of Gabriel's and Melanie's body?"

"I don't know how I could." He confessed "But I know Melanie can; Palutena has not yet ditched Zelda as Tabuu did with Fox, so if we can get Melanie back she can separate the souls."

"But Melanie…"

"You know this one Maquiel."

I did. All what he said should make no sense to me, I should be denying it, and I should not trust him whatsoever. But it's just because I'm narrating this events right now! Back then I understood that we were able to choose what we wanted our future to turn, I knew what I could do and I understood that I could, somehow, build a future of my own. We weren't puppets of god; we were people living in our world. And I knew there was something I could do to free Melanie.

"The reason why I didn't tell you this before is because I don't want to keep leading this story, it's supposed to be lead by all of you! So now, you can take the next step."

"I know, and I'm ready."

He broke into million pieces, and he disappeared like he never existed, however I knew he was around, not leading us, but feeling us.

I didn't know why it was so easy for me to accept it all, maybe it was because he secretly wanted me to buy all this crap, after all he was writing this, but I just felt a taste of freedom and I could hear my heartbeat. This was another dimension, it was a world like Earth, but it wasn't. But it wasn't less real because of it, it was our world.

"You've accepted it, with no much trouble I see."

I turned my sight at that voice; there was a man leaning at a shelf.

"Matthew…" I said.

"I've heard everything." He said calmly "I didn't say anything so that I could check on that guy's face and movements, so I could tell wherever he was lying or not."

"He wasn't."

"I know." He replied calmly "It actually makes sense to me; I think I kinda knew it ever since I said yes to Wolf, like if I knew I was taking an unexpected track, one the author of our story didn't want me to take… but I'm glad I did. Despite all of the pain I could finally cut the threads of fate."

"That's right." I said while walking towards him.

"It doesn't make the pain go." He continued "It doesn't make our situation any better, but it does give us resolve, we now know that Palutena and Tabuu are wrong, there is no need for an eternal conflict in order to avoid ending."

"And so we can fight…" I said while hugging him "If we do this Matthew…"

"It'll be up to Robert and Melanie then."

"They'll be fine." I said tranquil "Robert will protect Melanie."

"I know; he loves her as much as I love you."

We kissed, and this time it was like any before, because it was our final kiss. We somehow knew it was going to be the last time and we opened ourselves to the ending; this story wasn't about us anymore, this story was about to continue and we had to do this in order to ensure it. We would sacrifice ourselves.

"Why have you come?" I asked.

"I could not leave you." He said "I wasn't going to let you fight them on your own."

"I probably would have done the same." I admitted "Once we become the new vessels, we have to do the best to take them over, to control our bodies so that Robert and Melanie have a chance."

"I know."

And then we grabbed each others hands as we walked out of the store and walked around the empty street; this shallow world was about to become a new one, once the battle ended I somehow knew the world would be reborn into something more than a mere shed of paper.

I stared at Matthew and we both smiled as Tabuu and Palutena found us.

"You wanted to ensure a battle that won't stop." Matthew said "So that this world won't break, and the shape shifters have shown a conflict that can't end, we always fight each other."

"And we would probably keep fighting in this tragedy." I said "We are two lovers that will never again reach each other, and will keep fighting, is that worth to you?"

"If it is, come forth!" Matthew taunted "We are ready to take you over!"

But we knew that our words were a mere lie; despite our bodies would be entangled into struggle, there was someone who could end this.

* * *

><p>It was like if I just woke up from a prolonged nightmare; I was aware of everything that happened, but I just was a mere spectator as the events unfold; all the damage I took on Robert, how much I confused everyone, I was aware of all that. And then my eyes opened through the darkness.<p>

I was in middle of the street, in control of my own body, but I was really exhausted. Then when I took a look next to me I noticed that Gabriel was next to me, sleeping. What did that mean? I understood it when my eyes caught a glimpse of Maquiel and Matthew.

"No…" I said weakly "Please, don't tell me that…!"

But I was sure of it; they were Tabuu and Palutena.

I tried to stand up, but I had barely some energy left.

"You are no longer needed in this world." Maquiel said "Now that we have them, your shallow existence can cease to exist."

I looked above and I notice that millions of white light arrows were falling at high speed towards me. I thought it was the end of the line, which I would finally meet mom and dad in the after life, but it wasn't the case.

Just as it happened before white wings covered me and protected me. I felt warm as the feathers fell around me, and once they opened I noticed that I was being held by strong arms. Those were Robert's arms, but they were covered in blue fur, and the wings were from Yoshi.

I took a look above and I noticed that the wings were in Robert's back.


	14. Side Story 7: The day we died

_**A/N: **__This particular chapter was very fun for me to write, I really enjoyed it, because even if it's fictional, it kind of represents what I went through while writing the last chapters of the first volume. It didn't happen like this, of course, but it's close xD._

_In by the way, chapters "The grief" and "The rage" were originally one, so when I split them up the story increased in one chapter (obviously) and now it will end with 17 chapters plus an epilogue, so in the end a total of 18 chapters, and counting the epilogue of the previous two volumes, the total is 104 chapters. Not bad, not bad, and so this becomes the 100__th__ chapter! Yeah! =D. I'm glad you have kept reading this far. Enjoy!  
>Robert: 100 chapters? Wow, is our story really that god?<em>

_Yoshi: Seems so brother… to think that we made it this far… *sniff*_

_Robert: *sight* Here we go again…_

* * *

><p><strong>Side Story 7: The day we died<strong>

_I'm sorry buddy… I can't stand it without you… I'm really sorry…_

"Matthew?"

I was about to say yes, that I agreed, and then I would have embraced my whole darkness and my whole pain in Wolf's soul, but then I just seemed to hear Mario's voice.

_Mario…! Are you…?_

* * *

><p>"Now, how should I end this?"<p>

It wasn't very easy for me to write this chapter; the fight Pit and Wolf had was good and the revelation was a big one, so all that was left it was to see how I would work things out with this. After Matthew said no to Wolf, he would stand strong and he would be awfully defeated by Wolf who would try to convince him, but he would be rescued by Maquiel in due time and they would run away. Then…

"Ok, this part is too much like Star Wars: The empire attacks… nah, it's ok, as long as it feels ok to me, what do I care whatever anyone thinks?"

But I did, critiques were very hard for me to tell, even when it wasn't flaming. So I stayed there thinking about what to do next; I felt kind of sorry for Robert, of all the characters he would take the worst part. He was a cool guy who would run badly and Gabriel would come back to the boys and be the good guy again. I never imagined that it would actually go the other way around.

"Hey, how's that coming?"

I immediately closed the window of my chapter, saving the file as I faced the person who just entered in my room. I smiled as he sat in the bed that was a few inches apart from the computer desk.

"Are you writing fan fictions again?"

"Well, it's fun..."

"I thought you were writing a book."

"Yeah, but it's nice to have a break and write something silly at times."

"So, what is it about?"

I was embarrassed to tell; the guy there was the actual Robert in real life, you could say the basis. Matthew was based in me, Maquiel in my girlfriend, and of course Robert and Gabriel were my friends, while Melanie was my sister. I didn't want to show them the story as it revealed how I really felt about them, who I really saw all of them, and yet those characters were growing in a different direction, and became themselves, people that weren't just a sketch of our life, but the real thing, I was just not able to see it right back there.

"It's a super smash bros fan fic…"

"Let me guess, Mario, right?"

"Kind of…"

"Well, no surprises there." He said smiling "He was your childhood hero. Am I on it?"

"No…" I lied "Maybe I can add you as a character later on."

"No, it's ok. Hey, the gang is going out, you coming?"

"Yeah, in a minute."

He left the room in a matte of seconds; he always did this kind of thing, in which he pursued me to tell him what I was writing. It was bothersome as I really didn't want anyone I know to see it. That sound odd, right? Not letting the closest people you have to read what you read, and have strangers instead, but that was because strangers critiques I could handle, but critiques coming from those who I cared about? No thanks, I rather have my files saved in my computer and let them root.

"So…" I said while opening the file "There are many lose ends here that I will have to solve on following chapters, what I can do about them?"

I didn't really know what to do, I was having an authors block and so I decided to leave it at that point in which Matthew was about to refuse and I took off with my friends.

When I got back it was already late at night and everybody in the house was sleeping, so I just turned on the computer and started thinking about the story. While I had many things I could write, this one in particular was very fun for me; it was like living the dream of becoming Mario and realizing the true burden of that. I got really into the story, but then I noticed that there was something strange.

"Who is this Lex guy?"

He was a very cold character, and he was physically equal to Matthew. It wasn't that they were twins or anything like that, he was like the colder part of Matthew's persona, but at the same time he was his own character. I stared at the character that I wrote about several chapters ago and I noticed that it couldn't be just that he was cold and equal to Matthew just because of the sake of it, there had to be reason, and there had to be a link between his past and Wolf's. That was the very first time I wrote the chapter "No place to hide".

"No one will see this coming." I said satisfied as I read the chapter I just wrote "I wouldn't have at least, and that's enough for me, now I have an idea of how I want to develop things farther."

At that time I hadn't written the Mario and Matthew reunion because it never had a reason to happen, I just wrote the relationship between Lex and Wolf, it was meant to be a side story. I actually liked Wolf as villain, because it wasn't like any other, he had his reasons, he was a genius, but he didn't mean to hurt Matthew at all, so that made him special.

"I guess I can upload it as it." I said while sighing.

I searched the file "Countdown to the end 0: Bleeding Moon" and I uploaded it on the web; I was very exited, because it would mark the beginning of the end, Matthew would grow stronger along with Maquiel, Melanie and Gabriel to defeat Robert, and in order to do so Matthew would acquire Palutena's powers as Robert would gain Tabuu's power. I had everything figured out in my mind and it was a great relief. At the time.

I thought I heard a noise in middle of the starry night and I looked through the window; for an instance I thought I saw Ganondorf in the garden and I assumed that it was so late that I was just becoming paranoiac. I turned off the computer and went to sleep.

The next morning I found something odd on the web; the chapter was uploaded right, but the end was different:

* * *

><p><em>I'm sorry buddy… I can't stand it without you… I'm really sorry.<em>

"Matthew?"

"I agree Wolf?"

* * *

><p>My blood froze; it couldn't be… it was like Matthew made a choice of his very own free will. The chapter ended at that very point when Matthew agreed to Wolf's proposal.<p>

"This is not ok." I said a bit afraid "Ok, it is a good twist, nobody expects the main hero to turn bad, especially in this gary stu kind of story…"

I was actually afraid of this; while my brain tried to make some logic out of it and think that I actually wrote this, and that I just believed I didn't, somewhere deep down I knew things were about to get strange.

"So, it's already uploaded…" I said while sighing "Then I guess… I can work this out."

Then I started writing the next chapter, "Smash X Evolution". Maquiel arrived there in due time, when Wolf was about to take over Matthew.

* * *

><p>"Matthew!"<p>

Her voice echoed in my mind; when I saw at her I knew I couldn't do it. He didn't guarantee her safety and I couldn't let her run that risk, I just couldn't. So I jumped backward and…

* * *

><p>Then the rest was easy, it wasn't that hard to figure out that kind of situation, a bit cliché for my own like, but still it could fix the trouble it initiated with the previous chapter. Once again I finished it, with Matthew coming back with everyone to the house, resolving to confront Wolf and Robert, while Pit told them about an alternative; to accept Palutena's power.<p>

I think this is the point where everything got screwed up. When I uploaded the chapter, I noticed that it was changed once again.

* * *

><p>"Unless he's agreeing to lie in Wolf's place" Melanie stated as she glared at Matthew.<p>

* * *

><p>"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"<p>

This wasn't like before when the last lines were replaced, this time the entire chapter was different, leading into a completely different place than what I really expected.

"No, no, no!" I said shocked "This is not right."

* * *

><p>"Is it not, Isaac?"<p>

* * *

><p>I just saw those lines appear out of nowhere on the computer and I froze in terror.<p>

"Who is it?" I asked scared.

* * *

><p>"I'm the influence on your story, Ganondorf."<p>

* * *

><p>I looked at the lines terrified; Ganondorf was like an invisible hand that I had planned while writing, to never show him, but lead the events to where they were supposed to. He wasn't planned to be shown until the last chapters.<p>

"What?"

* * *

><p>"I'm you." It was written "I know that this isn't the way the characters are supposed to go, who do you think you are to change that? Are you so afraid of showing what's really in your soul? Then maybe you shouldn't write at all if you are going to express lies."<p>

* * *

><p>"Stop it…" I said scared.<p>

* * *

><p>"Tabuu and Palutena are already aware of your existence, thanks to me."<p>

* * *

><p>"This can't be happening, it's all in my mind."<p>

* * *

><p>"That's right, it is, but your mind is so powerful that it created a complete dimension out of nowhere; you created us, but you can't control our choices any longer. And I will take your crown for myself."<p>

* * *

><p>"Why is this happening?" I asked out loud.<p>

I couldn't really figure out at the time; before I realized my body was on the ground as my mind left it and suddenly… I became everything; I became the world and the feelings around it. It was real… the smashers story, the shape shifters story it wasn't a story any longer, it was real. And so I saw how everyone took their own choices and how they would lead to pain. And I foresaw an awful ending… a tragedy, in which two shape shifters became Tabuu and Palutena, to fight an eternal conflict, because as long as there was a conflict there was a story to tell.

_No… this is not good… I have to do something about it…_

It was the first time I took my physical form in this world; I was in middle of the street and a woman bumped into me.

"I'm sorry!" she said as she helped me get up "I should have been careful."

"It's all right."

When I saw her face I thought that I would suffer a heart attack; she was Maquiel, and she was in front of me.

"Wow, you must have fallen from the skies, because beauties like you are not often seen in this land."

I said that in order to excuse my shock; I couldn't tell her the truth, how could she believe me? For her I was just some guy from the street. She seemed to laugh.

"I've heard better flirts." She said still laughing "Also, I'm kind of in a relationship."

"Sorry." I said laughing; just as expected, she was still hocked with Matthew "I thought destiny had something to do with it."

I noticed she was troubled by that word and I decided to give her my hand.

"Isaac, nice to meet you."

She stretched my hand.

"Maquiel."

"May we meet in another life," I said thinking about the actual Earth land version of her, the girl I based her on "a one in which we can go out."

"Sure… I guess."

She left and I walked in the opposite direction. The conversation was so real… and I knew I had nothing to do with it, it wasn't like I was writing it down, it was more like… then I realized about it.

"This is not a story I created." I whispered "I'm just… allowing them to tell them."

I was like some kind of vehicle for this story to happen; I was the world itself, but the story was unfolding on its own, I didn't create anything out of nowhere, this story was a representation of my own life, and as such it had a future on its own as my own story did. That was the moment I decided to intervene, to make sure that they would make this story a real history, in which they could have their own free will, just as I had. And as such, I intervened whenever I could, which I had no many instances to do so, as when I did I broke apart. However, by this point I know the future can be lead by a new main character, and that this world will soon cease to need me. And it will be lead by that guy. Robert.


	15. Wings and Bombs 2, The X Factor

_**A/N: **__Double upload in one day, it's one of the luxuries you can have once you ended a story xD. The two remaining chapters will be uploaded either later today or tomorrow. Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Wings and bombs 2 [The X Factor]<strong>

"Ro… Robert?" I asked a bit shocked.

He gently let me go and I stepped backwards so that I could have a good glimpse at him; he was half naked from the waist up, his arms were covered in blue fur like Lucario's and he had a pair of wings like Yoshi's in his back. Also he had one green eye and the other was his common pale blue eye. He smiled at me tenderly and he touched my cheek.

"Good, it seems you are all right."

His voice was so calmed and it infused me with the same calm, like if there was nothing to worry about. And there was also the soul; it was nothing like before. His soul was changed, like if he was a completely different person, however I could sense that Robert was still there, standing in front of me. He was different, and he was certainly stronger, so strong that I could feel like there was nothing to worry about.

He took a glimpse at Gabriel, and I noticed that there was no rage in his look, but pity.

"Interesting." Matthew said "It seems you achieved the Smash X Evolution."

_No… this isn't just smash x evolution… this is something else… _I knew that it was, because while Matthew's change did affect his soul and changed, it wasn't anything like this. This was a completely new man born in front of my eyes, while still keeping Robert's scent.

"I don't care if you find it interesting or not." He said calmly "Why did you attack her?"

"Simple…" Maquiel said "because she is no needed anymore."

"Is that so?" Robert asked and he seemed pissed "Then I better take good care of her first."

It happened in less than a second; it was so fast that my eyes could not follow when we ended up in the roof of a building, me, Gabriel, and Robert.

"I'm going to take care of everything now." Robert said "Gabriel no longer has Fox so he is not a trouble. Please, no matter what, don't come into the fight."

"Wait! Ro…!"

He turned around and then he kissed me; I blushed as I let myself be driven by the tender of his gesture, as I let his tongue and mine met. Then I realized how much he cared about me, how much he wanted to protect me, and I realized how much I did care about him too, I realized that I also have felt in love with him, that I began to love him since he got back with us four months ago. I loved him because he was broken, and I felt that I could fix him.

And there he was, standing strong in front of me as he finished the kiss and smiles, while he rubbed my cheek.

"Nothing is going to happen to you." He promised… no, he swore it "You wait here please."

As he flapped his wings he disappeared in the air, and I knew very deep down on me that he would save us all; I shed tears of joy because I could feel that he would really achieve victory.

* * *

><p>"He is faster than we predicted." Palutena said.<p>

Maquiel's body did fit her great, and she was already getting used to those kinds of powers, after all Pit's blood was inside that woman and it made the adaptation easier than mine, after all I had to deal with Matthew, Mario and Wolf souls together trying to take over me, however that was nothing to be concerned of.

Robert appeared in front of us in a split second; he was indeed faster and stronger. He looked at us with a serious calmed look as he drew two beam blades out of his belt.

"Vatra and Vode?" I asked "What do you….?"

The blades flared in green aura as the edge was unleashed and with just a swing it was thrown against us. It did nothing, but I knew he wasn't really trying yet.

"Palutena!" I said "Go to that place. I'll be there as soon as I finish with Robert."

Palutena disappeared at the double and Robert seemed to be about to follow her, but he stayed here, looking at me with those serious eyes.

"Aren't you going to follow her?" I asked.

"She's not after Melanie, so I guess I can take one at a time."

"You talk like you have a chance… you should know that just because you achieved smash x…"

I wasn't even left to keep talking, because his hand grabbed my face and he pounded me in the ground with might; the concrete broke and my head was kind of buried in the dirt below the concrete. It was unbelievable how physically stronger he was now, however I was able to force him jump backwards by unleashing a great amount of waves. Then I teleported at his back and I covered my arm in a light that was shaped like a blade and I attempted to attack; he shouldn't have been able to block it, but he did. Vatra stopped the blade with ease as he slashed my face with Vode. I merely dodged that as I teleported backwards and I noticed that I was still cut on the cheek, a superficial cut that would close soon, but still… I was inflicted damaged so easily, something was very wrong.

"What's wrong?" he asked "You seem quite shocked."

I didn't reply, I just pointed my hand at him and thousands of energy balls went after him like bullets, but he just enclosed himself in his wings and they blocked the all. I teleported once again, a few inched towards him and then I made appear a blaster as Zero Laser kind of laser came from it. It was launched at such a high speed that I thought he wouldn't have been able to dodge, but what I saw was even more frightening than avoiding the impact. He actually dropped Vatra and he stopped it barehanded.

"What…?"

I could not believe it; his hand was burning in blue aura and he deflected the blaster with it. I teleported backwards in order to avoid front confrontation, but he was at my back within split seconds.

"You're too slow." He said tranquil as he slashed me with Vode on my back. The wound would heal, but he kicked my face faster than predicted and he pounded me in the ground again, as his wings opened wide, like if they were collecting energy from the skies.

"What the hell are you? What have you become, Robert?"

"My name is not Robert." He said "I am Robert, but that's not my name."

I looked at him scared; what did he mean by that? In all the events that already unfold, I did expect that Robert would achieve smash x evolution, however this was different, very different from the kind of power that Matthew and Maquiel had, it was like if he was actually reborn, and like if the souls had merged into one.

"Are you scared?" he asked like taunting "Are you afraid that something that you can't understand is happening in front of your eyes?"

"Don't get cocky, kiddo!" I said as my soul grew out of Matthew's body and my shape as Tabuu was shown; I was still in his body, but my soul expanded into the atmosphere "You still haven't seen anything!"

My eyes shot lasers against Robert, but he picked up the sword with great speed and with just one swing he deflected the lasers, as my soul returned to its original size.

"I'm getting bored of this." He said "I'll end this now."

Then his wings were shattered in the air as millions of feathers. At first I thought that he had lost control of his powers, but then I realized that the feathers were coming after me and that Robert was leading them as he came after me.

"Feather's dance." He whispered as he jumped towards me.

The first strike was set by Robert, and it was so fast that I couldn't avoid it; he made a cross slash with his two beam swords around my chest and then the feathers came towards to me in order to cut my like if they were million blades, and they also did something else; every single piece of feather drained a bit of my power. When it finally stopped, my body was covered in blood, with wounds that would heal with the remaining of my power; it was at that moment that I realized what Robert's plan was. He wanted to weaken me so then he could draw me out with his aura power. And he was succeeding; he actually was able to grab my soul and I knew he was about to shatter it. But then he let go, unwillingly of course, but he just fell on his knees as he coughed blood and his aura powers started to decrease.

"Shit!" he said.

He ran out of power.

* * *

><p>"Fuck damn it!" I said.<p>

As I jus now realized about my powers, as it was the first time I ever put them in action along with Yoshi's I didn't come to figure out that I already used too much power. I didn't have energy left in order to shatter Tabuu's soul.

_It was so close! _I thought with rage. _I'm an idiot! As soon as Palutena took off I should have used feather's dance, but I had to show off! Way to go!_

I stood up and I glared at Tabuu as I tried to make my wings grow back, but they wouldn't come as I used already too much power.

"It seems you are out of juice." Tabuu said tranquil "You actually scared the hell out of me Robert, I mean, for a second I thought it was over. Be proud of yourself, there was no one anyone could get this far."

"You're talking like it's over." I said "Let me remind you I'm not the same Robert."

"It's true; you are not the same boy anymore. You are just a man with scary powers. But without them, you don't stand a chance!"

I knew he was about to strike back; if what they said was true and they just needed two fit shape shifters in order to keep the world alive then Melanie and I were not longer needed; I could not give up just yet, I raised the swords and hopes for the best as he came for me. He teleported to my back and I was able to turn around and stop his bladed arm with Vatra and Vode, although it wasn't as easy as before.

"I see that you still have stamina left, and your senses and speed are as great as before." He said while jumping backwards "So you were right, this is not like Matthew's smash x evolution; this is a perfect x evolution, you actually became one with Yoshi and Lucario, something neither Matthew nor Maquiel could do, and that you weren't supposed to achieve."

"You just said it." I said smiling while I tried to regain my breath "I just screwed destiny."

"But you are forgetting something Robert." He said tranquil "Course correction."

Although I could see through his teleportation, I wasn't able to avoid it or block it this time; I was kicked in the waist and sent flying backwards against a building. I crashed in the window and as the glass broke into shards I tried to recover in mid air and I rolled as soon as I touched the ground trying to recover a fighting pose, but then Tabuu appeared once again in front of me and he shot me with his blaster; I used both Vatra and Vode in order to contain the blast along the beam edges, however as I was on that Tabuu teleported once again to pound me in the floor.

"It was a good battle." Tabuu said "But it's over!"

I really thought it was done for me; I was ready to try to do anything to survive, but I deeply thought I was done for. However Tabuu's arm that was meant to crush my skull stopped in middle of the air. I didn't waist my chance and I cut it off with the beam blade. A steam of blood came out of it and it covered my head, as I ran towards a window. _I need to retreat and recover… I can't beat him like this. _When I got to the broken window I noticed that it was on the fourth floor. _The kick sent me that high, uh? _I noticed that Tabuu had still some troubles with controlling his own body and I just made a leap of faith.

"Geronimo!" I yelled as I jumped.

I hoped that the adrenaline would be able to draw out the source of my power and use that bit left on the depths of my soul to summon my wings back, but as I began to see the floor coming nearer I started to think I just made the wrong call. But I was stopped in mid air; a few inched above the ground. At first I thought it was Tabuu trying to scare me and to make me see I was in a pointless situation, but as soon as my feet touched the ground I saw a shape falling of the same window.

"What the hell?"

I was shocked; the one who was falling through that window was Wolf. I was able to grab him as he fell, and as soon as he opened his only eye he was able to tell that I was really puzzled.

"So it came to this, uh?" he asked "Matthew… he became…"

"I already know that!" I said still shocked "How the hell did you get out of there?"

I didn't know if I expressed myself right "get out of there" as if Matthew's body was a place, but still he understood.

"Matthew, Mario and I were able to stop Tabuu before he tried to crash your skull… so he ditched us."

"I see…"

I actually didn't quite grasp it, but it didn't matter, what I was concerned it was that Matthew and Mario were still struggling with Tabuu there. Or maybe just Matthew by now, as it wouldn't surprise me if Tabuu ditched Mario as well.

"You are… different…" Wolf told me.

"I know, I'm not the same guy." I said "Feel free to call me Robert, after all I have no other name to be called with by now."

"You are Robert… and at the same time you are not…" he seemed to laugh "It's curious…"

"That Tabuu hasn't come for us as we spare this talk?"

"Yeah, that and… well, you have grown in the right direction I think."

"Thanks, I guess." I said as I looked upward "Should we wait for Mario, or we should run away?"

"Are you suggestion retreat?"

"I can't win as the way I'm now." I said "I've wasted way too much power, which I need in order to draw him out of Matthew. So yes, I need to forfeit this battle if I want to win the war. Can you move?"

I helped him stand in his feet and he tried to take a few steps.

"I'll be alright."

"Good, because I think Tabuu's not up to wait much longer. If what you said is true, then my guess is that Mario and Matthew are doing their best to hold Tabuu. We need to use this chance to retreat."

"What about Mario?"

"He'll be fine." I said "Right now there's someone else we have to worry about."

"Who?"

"Melanie."

Melanie was a bit far from here, so we had to hurry as we didn't know how much time Mario and Matthew could hold Tabuu like they were doing, so we ran. Wolf seemed to have some troubles catching his breath, but he was able to follow my lead as we ran. Then I suddenly stopped when I saw a boy, just like Matthew, but blond, in middle of the street.

"Robert!" he said.

"Oh, great, more things I don't understand!" I said as I took a defensive stance.

"Wait, I'm not your enemy!"

He seemed puzzled, like if he was trying to explain something impossible; I understood because that was the face I would put if I tried to explain this whole situation to a stranger.

Then Tabuu appeared in front of us, but he seemed rather scared by the boy.

"Isaac!" he said.

"I didn't expect to meet you twice in a day, Tabuu." He said as he grabbed my hand.

"Hey!" I protested. "What are you doing?"

"Saving your ass." He replied; he seemed to know that I was going to complain and he added "Don't worry; I'll take care of Melanie too!"

And just like that, our entire surrounded shattered as if were a glass and for a few seconds we were in deep darkness. And just as if that darkness never existed, soon Mario, Wolf, Melanie, Gabriel, that guy Isaac, and I were of Matthew's place. Isaac seemed to be about to faint, he was sweating and almost out of breath.

"Palutena and Tabuu won't come as long as I'm here, I can promise you that."

"That was new." I said a bit shocked "An explanation would come just fine now."

"Of course." He said as he sat down "It'll be a bit hard to believe."

"I think that we already crossed that line."


	16. Last day as a fictional story

**Last day as a fictional story**

"So…" I said trying to abstract the whole idea "You actually wrote our story down and eventually it came to actually happen, then you were dragged into it and you tried to help us."

"Yeah, that's the short version."

Everybody seemed way more shocked than I; I wasn't even that surprised anymore, ever since Yoshi and I became one I was just able to think that everything is possible, besides I could tell when people lied or not, and this guy was most definitely not lying.

"This is insane!" Wolf complained.

"Is it?" I asked "I think is kind of a relief."

Every body just looked at me puzzled.

"Think about it, if this guy is like 'god' and he has no control of us whatsoever, then we are in control of our lives from now on." I said tranquil "It means we are not puppets following the whimsies of some strange god, but people who actually make their own choices, we are free."

Melanie stared at me and I noticed that as she looked my calm face, she started to take it a little bit easier. However it wasn't Gabriel's case; Isaac waited until he woke up so he wouldn't miss anything, and he was upset, about to break into a rampage.

"What are you saying?" Gabriel asked coldly "That I should just be happy about how everything turned out?" his voice became anger "MY LIFE IS A LOAD OF CRAP!"

He yelled as strong as he could; Mario was about to interject, but I stopped him with only one glimpse, Gabriel needed to take everything out of his system.

"My dad left me when I was a boy!" he said strongly "You wrote that! You also wrote how my mother became the woman she was! And then I lost her! You also turned me against my friends against my will, you made Falco brain wash me and since then…" he wasn't able to finish that sentence, a tear came by his face "I even lost Fox now… you said the story became real at the point Matthew agreed to Wolf… then what about everything before that turning point? What about my pain? What about everyone's pain?"

Isaac seemed hurt; he turned his eyes aside a bit and his body started trembling.

"When I wrote it…" he said "I never meant for it to become real… it was just a story I wrote for me… I'm sorry…"

"Sorry my ass!" Gabriel said as he walked towards him and grabbed his shirt's collar "Fix it! Re-write it! And then…!"

"…Then we will be puppets." I said.

Gabriel looked at me with rage; I could understand where it was coming from. I myself suffered a lot, and I knew that guy was responsible for writing a lot of it, but he was also the reason we were all alive, and he was also the reason we became free to make the choices that we wanted.

"You are just upset because you lived your whole life at someone else's expectation, so the thought of being free to be whatever you want is scaring you."

"What do you think you know about me?" he asked.

"A lot." I replied as I touched my chest "I know what it is the pain you withstood, and I know how easy to let you fall in despair, letting yourself being controlled so you will be able to escape from it… however I also know the relief of letting go, of being able to accept the despair, to master it and then… the sweet taste of knowing that life is up to you. Right now, you are just unable to think of a way of moving on your own."

I saw the fist coming, and although it would have been very easy for me to dodge it or block it, I let it hit. He hit again, and again. Melanie was about to stop her, but I stopped her, I told her with my thoughts that it was fine, and as she looked at my face she noticed not even a bruise appeared, that my expression was kept as calmed as ever.

Gabriel eventually became tired of hitting and he let the tears overcome him as the cry went out.

"I killed people…" he said "I murdered the smashers, I killed Sophie and Salaric and I even ripped Matthew's heart out… what is there waiting for someone like me? There is no redemption…"

"There is always redemption." I said "You want to think there is not, because you know it'll be painful, you want to die because you know it's an escape, but it's not a proper punishment for your sins."

Gabriel wasn't able to look at me, he kept crying, staring at the floor as Melanie put her hand on the chest. She wanted to talk, but Wolf spoke first and she seemed relieved.

"It's me who put you in this situation, Gabriel." Wolf said with guilt "I used you in order to get to Matthew; not even once I thought on how much pain I would inflict you. It's my fault, I forged you into this."

"Wolf, you don't have to take the blame for my mistakes." Isaac interjected.

"But you didn't know." Mario added.

"Ignorance does not justify what I did to you." Isaac replied "I…"

"Ok, you can keep blaming yourselves or you can actually do something about it." I interrupted.

Silence reigned for a couple of seconds and then, as I sighed, I continued.

"No matter how much we discuss it, past is past." I said "We are all responsible for what happened, our choices made our future the way it is; yes, if I had the chance I would have made different choices, but I do not have that chance, so I rather think about the future. You can't change the past, but the future is to come, and I want to build one with memories that are worth, and so far I have done so. Yes, there is pain, but there is also happy times in my mind and heart, so I decided stop regretting and start living, really living. There will be a time when life will pull us all apart, but until that time comes I'll fight to create memories worth remembering, and so I'll be able to part ways happily."

Everybody stared at me; they couldn't understand how such words could come out of my mind, because they had the image of Robert when they saw me, but I wasn't that man anymore. I was Robert, Yoshi and Lucario at the same time; I was someone different, someone who overcame the fear of being manipulated by my own powers, and accepted the side of my soul in which Lucario rested, someone who understood the bond between a smasher and a shape shifter and merged souls with Yoshi. I was still Robert, but I was someone completely different at the same time.

"You've change." Wolf commented "You've grown into a fine wise man." He said as he smiled "Nothing like the boy overcame by fear that I met four years ago."

"I know." I said also smiling "But I'm happy I was that boy once, because it led me to this." Then I looked at Gabriel "That's why I believe in your redemption; you'll be able to find it, with sacrifice and pain, but you can."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked "It bothers me… because you are just like Matthew…"

I stared at him puzzled.

"Matthew was always there for me." Gabriel said "As kids he was very lonely, and that's why I tried to become friends with him, because he was lonely like me. And so we became friends, but I always noticed how even in his loneliness he was able to find some sparkle of joy, something I never found… and he always encouraged me to try find it… he never gave me a clue, he never said how… how I was supposed to find it? And now I even killed that friend of mine how believed in me! Even if he is alive now that doesn't make up for the fact that I killed him! And that I enjoyed it, just as it happened with his mother's death! How can I do that? How can I even stand here where Melanie can see me? After all what I've done to her…"

"Enough."

Melanie finally broke her silence as her eyes started to fill with tears. Gabriel stared at her with pain, sorrow and regret as he knelt in front of her.

"If you want to kill me, you should do it."

There was a big silence around the room; everybody gulped, but no one said a word, and Melanie stared at Gabriel a bit confused.

"I took so much from you; your lover, your mother, your brother… I tore your world apart, so you are the one who should…"

He was slapped in the face. Melanie started whining as she tried to keep it together.

"So you are asking me… to fall at your level?"

Gabriel opened his opened his eyes wide.

"Is that what you are saying?" Melanie asked with burning pain "DON'T BE SO FUCKING EMO!"

Now my eyes opened wide, as I never heard the "F" word coming out from Melanie's mouth, and so everyone in the room seemed as shocked as I.

"I will never forgive you for what you took away from me." She said "But when we fought I realized I would never be able to kill you, because they wouldn't want me to become like you… it's a chain of hatred, and I'll be brave enough to cut it, as you weren't good enough to stop it yourself."

Gabriel seemed affected by what she said; every fiber of his self seemed to be falling apart as he heard Melanie's word.

"Go away." She said "Don't ever come back, just go… don't kill yourself or anything, live knowing what you have done and endure the pain every day, so one day… you may find at least a shard of peace in your life."

"Melanie…" I muttered.

"She's right…"

Everybody stared at the door; we all recognized the voice from the newcomer and he just entered in the room as he stared at Gabriel happily.

"It's been a while, Gabriel."

"F…Fox…" Gabriel muttered.

Fox stepped towards the carpet where Gabriel was knelt before Melanie, and he grabbed his shoulders.

"I knew they would get you back." Fox said "So I stayed here… all the time, waiting for the best… I'm sorry; I wasn't able to save you."

"You're sorry?" Gabriel asked as he hit Fox's waist "What are you talking about? I kept you on the deepest of my disturbed soul! I shut you for good! I kept you wrapped in my madness, and you are sorry?"

"You really think there isn't a single piece of light in your soul?" Fox asked.

Then I remembered; I always believed that I was a very broken man, with a dark soul filled with hatred, and then Yoshi showed me that side of me that I wasn't aware of, the side he clang to, and surely it was the same side Fox hanged on too, and that was why he was so concerned about Gabriel. The bond between a smasher and a shape shifter was something unbreakable.

"There is light and darkness on everyone's soul." I said "Yoshi showed me that, he withstood my darkness, because he hanged into my light. Fox did the same thing Gabriel, he wouldn't be here if there wasn't some decency somewhere deep in your soul."

"Is that true?" Gabriel asked moved.

"It is." Fox said "So I came here to get you, so that we can start over, so you can finally get to know who you are."

"Why? Why going so far for someone like me?"  
>"Because you are my family." Fox replied "And as such, I will bear the burden of your sins with you. Whatever path you walk, I'll walk it along with you."<p>

Gabriel wasn't able to reply, he was deeply moved and he just hugged Fox as he let it all out by crying. Fox held him tight as we seemed to grow calmer as we heard that cry, because that cry turned Gabriel the monster into Gabriel the human being.

Isaac was particularly happy about it, he was also shedding tears and I could feel a deep sensation of relief and joy as he saw this reunion, like if his child's life was just starting to fix.

Fox took Gabriel's hand and he guided out.

"It's time to go." Fox said "There might be the chance we won't ever see you again, so before we depart… I want to say thank you… although is not enough to describe my appreciation."

"It's ok." I said "Make sure Gabriel finds himself."

"Fox." Mario said solemnly.

They shared a look beyond my comprehension; they had another kind of bond, which I wasn't able to describe, but they were very close.

"We'll be always here." He said as he pointed at his chest "We lived as brothers and will die as such."

"We are your family too." Wolf added "We've always been."

Fox smiled towards them and with the hand he had free he made the same movement towards his chest as he took Gabriel out. Gabriel shared a last glimpse towards us, showing us sorrow and regret, but there was a very faint glimpse of gratitude on it.

Once they left Melanie sighed; she was relieved that he left, she couldn't really stand it, so I walked towards her, I sat her on the couch and I hugged her. As I did my wings sprouted around her; it wasn't something I did conscious, they just seemed to appear in order to wrap her in the calm that filled by own self.

"I love you." I whispered at her ear.

She rested on my chest as the tears came out and she faintly replied:

"I love you too."

Once I heard those words I knew I could not die; I knew that I had to live in order to protect this girl, which I had to be there in order to love her, and to fix every little piece of her broken heart. We both had to live on.

"Robert." Isaac said "I think your powers will be fully restored by tomorrow. Once they are, you are facing Tabuu and Palutena, right?"

"Right."

"I can't assure that you'll be able to bring Matthew and Maquiel back, I'm not even able to tell if you can win…"

"That's good." I interjected "That way I know it is up to us."

"That's not what I meant." He said "I… in order for you to be fully free, I have to disappear."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"This world is me." He said "I'm the world, and so as long as the world exist I will exist too, that's why Tabuu and Palutena are so afraid of me, because every time I shatter, the world starts bending and it may eventually break. That's why the story must live on through the conflict."

"Meaning?"

"It needs to be told by someone who is not me." He said "That means, that this story will become narrated in first person, that eventually this very dialogue will wrote down as you, telling the story to the next generation, and then that generation will share the story, and so on until the end of times. You are the last protagonist of this conflict, the one who will tell the tale of how the shape shifters came to an end, wherever is a tragedy or a happy ending. You'll be creating the future from now on, and one day you'll write this story down to be told. And then when the times come, the story will be passed to Alex."

We opened our eyes wide as we heard the name; Alex, Sophie's and Salaric's newborn child, which was being raised by Meta Knight. Isaac smiled.

"I can't tell the future anymore, but I can tell this: Meta Knight will become that child's father… no, he already is, and he will grow keeping his true father as a secret towards everyone else, so there must be someone else to rise that kid, a link towards the world he lives, and that person is…"

"Me."

Melanie and I answered at the very same time. We looked at each other as we blushed, because we knew what it meant. I would become that child's father and Melanie his mother. Of course, he would eventually learn the truth, that Melanie is actually his sister and that I… well, I was just Melanie's lover, but we would be there for him, for anything he needed, for everything that Meta Knight could not give him, things from this world, but the true father's love would come from Meta Knight.

I held Melanie in my arms tightly; we had a reason to walk forward, to keep living no matter how badly the conflict ended.

Then Isaac's body started to faintly disappear in front of us as he smiled.

"I'm glad." He said "I'm not becoming the world, and I'm not going back."

I didn't understand it, but there was a very strong feeling inside of every of us when he stared at us while disappearing.

"I'm becoming just a mere part of this story, reaching immortality through this writing." He said happily "This is the last day as a fictional story; from now on… it will be your own history."

And so he disappeared in front of us.

_Thank you, Isaac. _I thought. _Thank you for creating us, and for giving us freedom… and goodbye._


	17. Smash X Extinction

_**Author Note: **__Last chapter… (not counting epilogue, though) after all this time, the curtains finally falls. I want to thank you readers, for keeping up with the story until this point. It is because of this story that I've improved my grammar and my vocabulary (although I keep using the same words over and over again xD). There's no much more to say, but that I've enjoyed writing it, I've enjoyed seeing how much the characters grew over the years and now we are lead by Robert to the finale. Once again, thanks everybody, your critics made me grow as an author, my mistakes will not be repeated in others stories, and also thanks to my characters, I only write what they chose, I don't really make their story, they give me a story to tell. And readers, even when you don't review I appreciate the hits, seeing that you read the story is always encouraging. Let's put a good end to it._

_Robert: Well as the last main character is my great honor to say goodbye, to finish the narration as I finally cut through fate's strings, now it's time to go._

_Yoshi: Thank you so much for following our journey! We love you so much, guys!_

_Maquiel: You guys rock! I hope we meet again._

_Samus: Next time with fewer mistakes, though._

_Matthew: Thanks for reading our story from day one, even if you came in later._

_Mario: And so it ends… Thank you for reading our story! See you next time!_

* * *

><p><strong>Smash X Extinction<strong>

It began. The last battle was up ahead of us now; I could feel that the ending was up ahead. The morning came quicker than I imagined, time seemed to speed up while I was with Melanie, and the time came for us to walk down the battlefield, where Tabuu and Palutena were waiting for us, to put a good end to this. They were in a graveyard beyond a hill, in a clear circle area with no gravestones. Melanie, Mario, Wolf and I were ready to fight, with a resolution we have never ever met.

As I walked down the hill I felt a bit nervous while staring at both Matthew and Maquiel, both under Tabuu's and Palutena's control. I gulped as I raised Vatra and Vode against them and then two pairs of white wings spread from my back as my arms grew blue fur, and I could feel how one of my eyes became green; I was going all in now, I wasn't going to wait until the finished so I just jumped to the fight before Melanie, Mario or Wolf, I directly assaulted Tabuu brandishing both swords, which he blocked with his own hands. Wolf appeared from behind and he slashed Tabuu with his claws, but he disappeared in front of us, to teleport behind Wolf in order to slash him with a bladed arm, but I was fast enough to block it.

While Wolf and I handled Tabuu, Melanie and Mario would take the fight against Palutena; Mario took the front line as Melanie waited for the chance to take the shoot of her light arrow and remove Palutena out of Maquiel's body. Mario was stronger than before, I didn't know if it was because he fought for Matthew's sake or what, but as soon as the yellow cape was on his neck his speed and strength seemed to match Palutena's.

As for me and Wolf, we made a great team; Wolf used his telekinetic powers in order to give me the chance to slash the parts of Matthew's body that Tabuu turned into weapons and break them in pieces, and as I did that I made sure that every slash drained a bit of his powers with my aura skills.

Tabuu teleported next to Palutena and they joined hands; they were about to make a joint attack. Mario interjected with a fist filled in flames that broke through those hands and covered both of them in flames, although none of them were actually affected by Mario's fire, but it did give me time to attack them both, slashing Tabuu with Vatra and Palutena with Vode, draining even more power from each one. They both teleported and they found themselves stopped by Wolf and Mario as I prepared to make the final attack.

_I won't waste more time. _I was set on leaving enough energy after the feather's dance in order to be fully able to extract Tabuu and Palutena from Maquiel's and Matthew's body, and so the wings dissipated and became just a great amount of feathers.

Tabuu realized what I was about to do and he tried to teleport in order to stop me, but then he found himself stopped by Wolf, whose power increased by grabbing Mario's hand; they shared a bond in which they could share power after being so much time in Matthew's body. They managed to stop both Tabuu and Palutena as I danced in the air among with the feathers.

"Feather's dance!" I said tranquil as I span in the air and the feathers fell as blade shards around Maquiel's and Matthew's body, while I slashed each one with Vode and Vatra respectively, as those swords held their scent. And as soon as it was done Melanie shot the light arrow against Palutena as I used the remains of my aura powers to draw Tabuu out of Matthew's body. Victory was ours; or so I thought.

Before the arrow made contact with Maquiel's body, before I was able to fully pull Tabuu out of Matthew's body, they joined hands once again, and it seemed like the whole body shook. I was thrust backwards and I lost the grip I had on Tabuu's soul and Melanie's arrow disappeared in thin air before it could reach her.

"That was close." Tabuu said.

"Indeed, these children are actually dangerous."

"Ironically, it's just as Wolf once said." Tabuu commented "Melanie and Robert are dangerous. He couldn't be more right, they almost achieved."

Wolf didn't even bother in replying, he was just ready to act once again, and so I was. Even if a great amount of power was used by that technique, I could not give up; there was no way we could back out after everything we went through.

"Then, do we fight them together?" Palutena asked.

"Sure, one by one we would eventually be defeated." Tabuu replied.

I noticed that they didn't let their hands go and so I tried to get as close as I could to break that joint; Wolf and Mario remained in the same stance too, in order to increase Wolf's telekinetic powers, who tried to break their joint, but then something went terrible wrong. Both Tabuu and Palutena snapped their fingers.

Wolf's chest burst and there was a hole left where his heart should have been. Mario's eyes opened wide, just as mine and Melanie's, who just covered her face.

"WOLF!" I yelled in terror.

He didn't even last a second when they joined their powers; I tried to slash their hands in order to cut them, but they both teleported and I wasn't able to tell where, my eyes were not fast enough to follow where they were sent, but as soon as I could tell, I realized that they were a few inches behind Melanie. I ran towards there, but it was too late; Melanie was forced to shape shift back to her human self and Zelda was dragged out of her body and then she exploded.

"ZELDA!" Melanie yelled with fear and rage.

Her whole body was destroyed, there wasn't even a trophy left, and Melanie was covered in blood, and she was powerless in front of them. I hurried and I managed to cover her with my wings before Tabuu and Palutena made their new joint attack. My right wing was destroyed as if it never existed, and I was left with the right as I took Melanie out of their range. She was in shock, and now she was completely helpless.

"Zelda… she just…"

"I know."

"She has been with me…" Melanie muttered "Since I was ten… she knew everything about me, she… she was a part of me."

"I know, I know." I said trying to picture the pain of losing Yoshi; I couldn't "I'm sorry, but I have to take you out of here…"

But I had no chance; I received a new invisible attack, and although it did not destroy the wing, it did land in my arms. The blue fur came off my arms and it became a blue light that shape shifted in the air in the form of Lucario, which was also destroyed in the same way Zelda exploded. The blood covered me, Melanie and Mario.

"That takes care of Robert's aura power." Tabuu said.

"Idiot, which was just a boost to his original aura powers." Palutena corrected "Just as Zelda was a boost to Melanie's supernatural perception, which can divide soul. Sure, they can do nothing now, but if we let them live they might figure out their own powers."

For a very split second I felt fear, but it was overcome by my determination of protecting Melanie, and so I covered her with my whole body.

Tabuu and Palutena were about to attack us, I knew it, but Mario decided to protect us, to give us a chance, and then he charged against them.

"Robert, take the chance over my death!"

A hole was opened in his chest, just as Wolf's and I lost no time; my hands reached both Maquiel's and Matthew's heart and I tried to remove Tabuu and Palutena with whatever leftover of my aura power. I was going at my fullest, with my whole soul, but it wasn't enough, I was thrust backwards by their wave of energy.

"Nice try." Palutena said "Don't worry, we'll kill you both at the same time, so you can go to the after life together."

I thought it was the end, but then a miracle happened. Both Tabuu and Palutena knelt before us and stopped moving. I was barely able to realize that they were shot something like a tranquilizer dart, which injected a green substance into their bodies.

Then, from a chopper, we saw how Snake descended from the skies.

"Snake!" We yelled.

I swear I had never been happier to see that guy; his appearance was like a shred of hope. We thought he also died in middle of the explosion, but apparently we were wrong.

I figured out that he must have injected them the same substance that was in the vaccine. He looked around as soon as he landed and his face was filled with horror.

"What the hell is going on here?" he asked "Robert has a wing, Wolf is out of Matthew's body and dead, not to mention Mario! What the fuck…?"

"Snake, there is no time to explain, we are losing badly." I replied.

"I can see that." He said shocked "The cure won't last forever, so…"

"Melanie, you have to run!" I said "I'll fight them somehow."

"But…"

"It doesn't matter, run!" I yelled "There's nothing you can do!"

Melanie's face was filled in tears and she nodded as she ran away.

I stood up and I tried to gather my aura power; it seemed like I had used it all, and I wasn't able to draw more out. _Damn it!_

"If we don't think of something quick…"

It was Maquiel's hand the one who pierced Snake's chest.

"Sa.. Samus…" Snake muttered as he started dieing "Wa… wake up…"

And just like Mario, Wolf, Lucario and Zelda, Snake had just been killed in front of my eyes. _I wasn't able to protect them… but I have to protect Melanie! _That thought filled my whole self, but soon I was overpowered by Tabuu's and Palutena's joint force.

I was thrust against a gravestone and I felt how they tried to shatter my soul, just as I did many times; then I noticed that something very different was going on. They were actually trying to divide my soul and Yoshi's.

_NO! _I struggled to keep Yoshi's soul attached to mine, but soon the wing broke apart and then I became Robert once again, and Yoshi's thoughts and feelings weren't one with mine any longer, they were separated.

"Don't you dare letting yourself go!" I told Yoshi.

"_They will eventually drag us both… if I can save you…_"

"NO! YOSHI, DON'T!"

It was just like as if my hand grabbed his and he just let it go. I tried to keep him along with me as much as I could, but eventually it was thrown away from my body. I saw how Yoshi sprouted wings once he was thrown out of my body and he flew towards Maquiel's body.

* * *

><p>I couldn't see Samus anywhere around, I could faintly feel her around, but I was completely alone in this dark world. I just could hope for the best as I tried to find a way to take over my body, but there was nothing. I had to stare the death of our comrades, I had to see how Robert was at the edge of defeat and I almost gave up. But then something broke through the darkness I was trapped in; it was Yoshi, who was coming to find me, to drag me to the surface.<p>

I grabbed his hands as his wings covered my body and the whole darkness was illuminated; I was in my inner world, in middle of a raft that crossed a huge sea, and Samus was just next to us. I realized that the fact of being in the raft meant that I fell into despair, and that was why I wasn't even able to feel Samus when she was next to me. She was also covered in Yoshi's wings as she hugged me.

"We have to give Robert the chance to win." Yoshi said "He can do it, but in order to do so, we have to help him."

"The sacrifice is great." Samus said.

"I know." I replied "But I'm ready, Matthew and I did this knowing it might end this way…and we made peaces with it."

* * *

><p>It was… a miracle… The joint force was broken; Palutena had to break it, she couldn't handle Tabuu's power any longer, so she just let her hand go. I was, somehow, able to see what was going on. Yoshi, Samus and Maquiel were using the power of their soul to exorcise Palutena from Maquiel's body. Tabuu tried to avoid it, but then Palutena was finally exorcised, and I could see her real shape as the soul left the body and it seemed to break into very little pieces.<p>

"Palutena…" I muttered "Yoshi… you killed her…"

I was weak, but I tried to walk anyway; all that it was left to do was to reach Maquiel, and then touch her hand so she could send Yoshi's soul back to my body. But it couldn't happen. Tabuu shape shifted his arm into a blade and he teleported next to Maquiel and stabbed her.

"NO!" I yelled as I ran towards her "SAMUS! MAQUIEL! YOOSHIII!"

I could not believe it, I could just not believe what was happening in front of my eyes; Maquiel just died… and along here Samus and Yoshi's soul were also sent out of the body, out of my reach… they died, the three of them. Yoshi died… Yoshi died! YOSHI DIED!

I fell on my knees as I believed that madness would overcome me, and then I noticed that Tabuu teleported in front of me and he looked me with rage. He kicked my face and I fell back.

"This isn't over!" he said with rage "I'll make you pay for killing her! You'll suffer what I just suffered!"

"No…" I said as I just realized what he meant "Kill me! Take my life instead!"

But it was too late; I had no powers left, both Lucario's and Yoshi's powers were no longer in my body and my eyes could not follow him any longer.

He had Melanie in his hands, grabbing her by the neck.

"I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT!" I said "BUT DON'T! I BEG YOU!"

It was merciless and it was by far the worst thing I ever experienced. His hand became the edge of a sword and he made a cut all around Melanie's neck. He killed her, and the blood covered her whole body.

I was paralyzed; I wasn't even able to say 'no' anymore. Everyone, every single one.

I was just kicked in the face, but I wasn't able to feel any pain, as I was in shock by what just happened. I lost everyone.

"Now I have to fix everything." Tabuu said

_No… there is still someone._

"I'll bend your will and you will take me, then Matthew will serve as Palutena new host. We will recover her soul, we will make sure that Matthew will host her and it will end as it was supposed to. Your final showdown with Matthew."

_Matthew is still there somewhere…_

He was the only one who remained. Nothing could replace the loss of Melanie or Yoshi, but if at least I could save Matthew… I felt his right hand around my neck as he pushed me against a gravestone, and with the left one he twisted my ankle. I shed tears of pain, but I didn't even scream, and as soon as he finished twisting it, I spoke weakly.

"Matthew, if you are still there…"

"MATTHEW IS GONE."

Tabuu kept torturing me, he hit me countless times in my crouch, he twisted my other ankle, he cut me without inflicting fatal injuries, but all that physical pain couldn't compare to the pain of the loss. I was completely alone… there was no one at my side.

_Brother… _Yoshi's words echoed in middle of my brain, a remain of his soul, a remain of who he was still in my soul. _Don't give up! _How could I not? I lost everyone. _BROTHER!_

My body suddenly burst in green aura. I was covered by huge great flames that cut the sky, but did not burn me. Tabuu was forced to step backwards as my the flames changed my eyes color into dark green and ask the flames formed wings in my back and covered my arms with fur.

"This is not possible!" he said "Both Lucario and Yoshi were extracted from your body."

"You are a fool." I said… no, it wasn't only me, it was Yoshi as well "Smash X Evolution isn't something that can be destroyed. As long as I live on, Lucario and Yoshi live on as well, because we are one soul."

"CUT THE NONSENSE!"

He was about to attack me, but his body was covered in red and purple flames; from Mario's and Wolf's corpse, those flames came across Tabuu's body in order to stop him from moving, and suddenly Matthew's face changed as well.

"The bond I share wit Mario and Wolf…" he said "can overcome even death."

Then he looked at me and he opened his arms.

"Come, Robert."

I did; I pierced his heart and I used my power to remove Tabuu… not, I destroyed him, to make sure someone like him would not ever be summoned again.

My wings covered Matthew's body and I hugged him as soon as I got my hands off his chest. The heart was still beating; I made sure I wouldn't crush it or anything.

"You have to live, Matthew." I said "You are the only thing I have left."

"You were always like a big brother to me…" Matthew said "I never had a big brother… it felt good."

"Don't talk as if it's the end!" I said while the tears fell "You have to go through this!"

"Robert… please live on… because we all can live through you…"

"Matthew, don't…! DON'T DIE!"

But then he stopped breathing; his body became cold and his pulse faded.

I cried; I had eliminated Tabuu and Palutena, but I had lost everything, everything that was ever precious to me. And they wanted me to live on… how could I?

I knew that I saved the world from becoming an eternal spiral of conflict, but in order to do so the sacrifice was greater than I've ever imagine. How could I endure it all? I was alone.


	18. Epilogue: A day without melodies

_**Author Note: **__If anyone thought I was so cold blooded to let the story end without an epilogue I'm insulted. But well, this is merely the aftermath of the struggle, so last chapter was actually the last, however! Let's see how things worked out at the end._

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue: A day without melodies<strong>

"It's over…"

Those words were so empty now, because there was no one around to hear them. Matthew's lifeless body lied in my hand, Melanie's corpse was next to him and so was Maquiel's. Mario and Wolf also lied lifeless in the field. And the worst of all, I couldn't feel Yoshi around my soul anymore.

"Ugh…!" I groaned "Ah… ugh… everyone…"

Tears fell on Matthew's corpse as I held it tight.

"UAAAH!" I yelled with might "AHHHHH!"

I just stared at the bodies around me and the tears kept falling and falling.

"This can't be…!" I said with pain "Mario, Wolf, Maquiel, Matthew, Melanie… Yoshi!" the pain was intense, I had never endured something so painful "Everyone…"

Isaac was right; he wasn't able to see the future anymore. The future in which Melanie and I would become Alex's parents just shattered. Everything seemed meaningless to me back then, everything was just… so lonely…

I didn't move, I just stayed there, along with the bodies. The hours seemed to last years as I lay on the grass. Eventually it started to rain, and the blood started to flow with the water, leaving my body cleaned, but my soul stained.

I was barely breathing, I wanted to die so I could meet everyone on the after life, I wanted to go away with them, and I had the tools to do so. Vatra and Vode were at my reach, but there was a side of me that wasn't allowing me to commit suicide, as if the last pieces that remained from Yoshi's soul were preventing it. He wanted me to move on, but I didn't know how I could move on from this. At least I found I place I belonged, I found a family, I found love, and it was all taken from me with the snap of a finger. It all seemed so gloom now, it all…

"Robert?"

I barely recognized that voice, coming from a girl around Melanie's age.

"How come you are here?" I asked although I couldn't care the less.

"A blond guy appeared in my room, he told me you would need me, and that he couldn't stay long, that he would leave the rest to you."

_Oh... so it was you... well, there's nothing you can do to fix it. _Those thoughts covered my mind, as the girl saw the bodies around, and one in especific.

"Oh my god!" the girl's voice said "Maquiel!" she yelled "No, no, no, no, no!"

Yeah, she was dead, and the girl was just now realizing it.

"Sis, wake up!" she said "This is not funny! Come back."

Denial; I myself passed through that just a minute ago. We were free at last from battle, but the price for that battle was everything I ever cared of. Yeah, I gave freedom to this world, but it wasn't worth anything for me, it wasn't even enough comfort, what I lost was way more valuable than my freedom.

"Robert!" she said as she touched my neck and confirmed that I was alive "Are they all…?"

"Yes, Sarah…" I said with a broken voice "they are all dead."

She knelt before me, and then she hugged me; it was weird, feeling a warmth sensation in this world of cold pain, but feeling her skin against mine made me feel a lot better, it made the pain be less excruciating.

"What happened?" she asked weakly.

"We won." I said while the tears mixed with the rain "But in order to win, everyone gave up their lives. I was about to give mine too, but he didn't let me."

"Who?"

"Yoshi…" I said with pain "That selfish bastard… he didn't let me go there… the place where everyone else is…" then I looked at Sarah with a pitiful face "kill me, please. There is something inside me, the last remains of Yoshi's soul that won't let me die by myself… I beg you, end with my pathetic existence."

"What are you talking about?" she asked out loud "My sister just died! But I won't kill myself for it! If I die now, how is my family going to withstand it."

"My family is dead." I said "They just died."

"That's not your only family, idiot!" she said "You have a mother, and a father, don't you? How would they feel if you die now?"

"How can they care when we haven't been a family in years?"

"They are your parent's for god sake!" she said out loud "Besides… if I kill you, what will remain from my sister's past?"

And then she broke into cry and the tears burst in my chest. As she cried I tried to wrap her in a hug and the wings appeared once again. I was shocked by it; although I knew the power was still inside me, that Yoshi's and Lucario's power would always be with me, the wings sprouted out reacting to my despair, and it wrapped us both in a warm hug, and it felt like… like if Yoshi had just covered us in his kindness.

"Yoshi…" I muttered as the tears kept falling "Even in death… you still are walking beside me."

I grabbed Sarah even tighter as I came to this realization; over the sorrow there was a very faint glimpse of happiness over this fact, knowing that a side of Yoshi's soul would be always beside me. Even while I would never hear him cry again, call me out, laugh with me, there would be always these wings that would keep his soul next to mine, that would make even the deepest despair go away.

"Thank you…" I muttered weakly "Thanks for not leaving me…"

* * *

><p><em><strong>A month later<strong>_

I just awoke from a dream; it was the day we all met. Vincent, Richard, Salaric, Anna and me. We were born in this world without knowing that our role was fulfilling a certain chain of events in order to guide the story to a point where our children would meet. We all were involved in the creation of Tabuu and Palutena, and that made our bloodline specially fitting to host them. Of course, at the time they weren't called like that, and the smashers weren't even brought in the idea until later. Salaric wanted to create the ultimate weapon, a deity that would reign over what would one day become smashers, and so our quest began to stop him. Richard and I were the first ones to ever figure this out, and then Vincent came and died while trying his way out. Anna grew tired of failing and decided to do whatever she could to take his son away from the fate of becoming a host of those deities. We all had a chance of meeting in different timing, and we all have tales to tell about how each one ended, however this story is not about us, but our children. As for me right now, I just had the chance to briefly tell you about the day when I reached redemption.

* * *

><p>"I'm Robert Jared Wolf, and I'm Samuel's guardian from now on."<p>

My voice reached every corner of the mental institution where my father was kept. After a month of building a new life, I decided it was time to close this chapter of my life. I could not die, Yoshi was still beside me, even while he could not talk to me any longer, and thus I decided to start over, because of him.

Over the whole month that passed by, I opened my own Judo dojo, which was doing well; I didn't need to worry about rent or things like that, because it was written in Sophie's will that the house belonged to Matthew, Melanie, Maquiel and me, and as the previous three already died, the house was entirely mine. There Meta Knight was invited to live with Alex, so that he could raise him in the same house where his siblings where. Maquiel's family were torn apart by Maquiel's death, they were barely able to withstand it. She was buried next to Matthew and Melanie. It was decided that they would be buried together as they fought together so much time as warriors; seeing Melanie being buried underground was one of the most depressing and horrible moments of my whole life, but I made a promise to her; I promised her that I would live on, because I knew that was hat she wanted me to do. And so, Maquiel's family moved out; Sarah told me that they wanted to honor Maquiel's memory and try to live past this, but that Rachel, Peter and she would be ever able to get completely over with it, although she assured me they could move forward for her sake. Sarah became a very good confident of mine, whenever pain overcame me I could talk to her and I felt that my heart lightened a bit, and so her. A bond was born over our family's death, she became very close to me.

I also made a pact to my soul, that even if their deaths would haunt me forever, I would pursue happiness, which I would let my soul be calmed as it was before they died.

And that takes us to right now; if I ever wanted to make peaces with my soul, this was something I had to do.

The man was taken out of his solitary confinement and his gray eyes were set on mines. I smiled.

"I came for you dad." I said "I'm taking you out of here."

He ran towards me and he hugged me with might. It seemed like my words just relieved him from a huge burden.

"Is it over?"

"Yes, dad… I made it to the end."

He cried out loud as he held me tighter.

"That's ok." I said "Cry until you have finally let it all out."

The wings were about to sprout out, but I held it, because I could not let anybody else see them, but just as if the world wanted my wings to sprout, we were left alone in the corridor and the wings just happened to sprout and they covered my father. He seemed shocked.

"These… these wings…"

"This is the power that as sleeping in the depths of my soul." I said "With this power, I led it all to an end. With this power, I'm trying to turn sorrow into joy."

"They're beautiful." He commented "And they are also… the brand of your own self, it is what makes you unique…" he seemed too relieved "Robert, you have given me the best gift that any parent can receive."

"And what it is?"

"You had let me know that you found your own path." He said while crying "You haven't become a new version of me, you are yourself!"

"Yes, I am dad." I said.

Robert Jared Wolf was just a name by what people knew me, but that man was in the past, because I was nameless and reborn. I think that people can be born twice, the moment I reborn was the moment my soul merged with Yoshi's and since then I became a completely different person, and that was why I could never ever be the old Robert again. Even while having to withstand so much death, I was still that nameless man, whose soul could fins peace.

* * *

><p>"We're here." I said.<p>

As I parked the car in front of Matthew's… sorry, I'm used to say it like that… as I parked in front of my place, I asked dad to go inside. I already gave him the hence up that Meta Knight was taking care of a baby inside.

I knew that it wasn't the best idea to leave a man who was institutionalized for over 15 years alone in a new house, but there was something very important that I had to take care too now, and it couldn't wait.

"I'll be back in an hour or two." I said "This is your house now."

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Mom's."

He understood and he looked at me happily.

"You grew brave."

"No." I replied with a faint smile "I was merely reborn."

And so the car started running along the street towards that old house, in which I spent so many years in conflict with my mother and my stepfather. She always pressed me, she always wanted me to be better than what I already was, and so we grew distant, and as soon as I could, I left that house and almost five years have happened since the last time I saw her. And I knew that not a single moment could go by, without fixing this.

I parked the car in front of the antique yellow house as I felt a bit homesick, after all something good happened there despite everything; I met Yoshi in my very room.

I got out of the car and I walked towards the door as the sun started setting and I touched the doorbell.

In a matter of seconds, a tall woman, with curly light brown hair that fell to her waist, thin face, a bit large nose, and pale brown eyes and very thin figured covered by an old dress opened the door.

"Hi, mom."

"Oh my god, Robert…"

I thought she would have said many things, but she said none of the words that came to my mind, she merely hugged me as she burst into tears.

"It's been almost five years…" she said.

"I know."

"Robert, I…"

"No, please let me talk." I said as I broke the hug.

Mom listened very carefully, as if she was scared that she would lose me forever.

"I endured more than what you could ever imagine… I created my own family; my closest friends were like a family to me and I lost them all. In all this time I never ever thought of coming here, to the place where my mother would be waiting for me, because I thought you would be waiting for that moment, when I came back home as a failure. But I'm not, I came back here because I finally understood that is not the way you see me, it's the way you made me see you. And so… I came all this way to tell you… that I forgive you, and although we may have grown apart, you will always be my mother, and nothing will be ever change that."

She hugged me yet again as she broke into crying and tears.

"I'm so sorry Robert…" she said filled with sorrow "I won't make that mistake ever again! I want you to be a part of my life!"

"And I'll be mom." I said while I myself started shedding tears "I'm your son, and I'll be there for you. The bond we lost, we will build it again."

* * *

><p>It had been a very long day; I remember that after all what happened, after having dad installed in my house, after telling mom the truth and showing her powers and after she finally accepted it and decided to support me in any choice from now on, in middle of the night, while the sky seemed starrier than usual, I walked my path toward the graveyard where we fought the last battle, with a bouquet of flowers for everyone, even for the smashers who left no remain, and those ones who left a grey trophy were buried alongside Matthew, Melanie and Maquiel. That night, a miracle happened.<p>

"Thank you, Robert."

I turned around as I recognized that voice and my face immediately burst into tears as I saw a ghost.

"Melanie…"

I was not able to speak at the time, my throat could not make any sense of the words that tried to come out of it, and I could just stare at her image as my hands reached for her, but as soon as they were about to touch the face, they just passed through.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have a physical body to touch you." She said.

"Why are you here?" I asked with my face filled in tears "Melanie, please tell me that you have come to take me with you."

She looked at me with a faint smile, as her sad eyes were set in me.

"I could never do that to you, Robert." She said.

"Is death that bad?"

"Not at all." She said smiling "It's simpler than you think, but more complicated than I could possible explain to you. It's wonderful, but you can't die yet, you are not ready."

"When will I be ready?" I asked "I want to meet you all so badly. All of you…"

"And you will." She replied "But there is a reason why you have to live on, and so you can't die yet. I came here to tell you that."

"That's crap." I said with a bit of anger "I already had the resolve to do just that… You came here to see me!"

She seemed surprised, as if she didn't see it coming, but soon she eased her expression and she smiled.

"That's right…" she confessed "I miss you, you can't even begin to imagine how…"

"I miss you too." I said "Would you at least… come time to time?"

"If I do that you will never move on." She replied "And if I keep coming here, neither will I. I will remain in this land forever, as a spirit unable to move forward."

"So what?" I asked "As long as we're together…"

I saw how she reached for me, how she tried to kiss me, but she passed through me. It was cruel cosmic joke, but I was able to do something; I opened my wings and I was able to capture her soul around it, and I was able to feel here whole soul even if my body wasn't able to. She seemed to be able to feel me as well.

"Robert, you have to let me go."

"Never! I won't do that again! You can't ask me that!"

"_Brother…_"

The wings released Melanie as if somebody else took control of them and I took a look behind me; Yoshi was there.

"Yoshi…" I muttered as I fell in my knees before him.

Seeing him was more than what I could withstand; I wasn't able to speak anymore, I could just look at his calmed and cheerful face as the tears fell.

"_You can move on._" He said "_Even if you don't hear my voice, our soul is one and only, so I'll be just beside you, forever. Those wings are our power, and they are also my scent, which will be with you forever._"

I wasn't able to reply; Yoshi's words seemed to make life worth living, just by knowing that I wasn't alone at all, that he was at my side… and then I realized that I was not alone at all.

Everybody was here; Link, Ash, Pikachu, Lucas, Snake, Zelda, Samus, Mario, Wolf, Maquiel, Matthew, Melanie and Yoshi, all of them looking at me, smiling, as if they knew I would move forward. And it wasn't just them who were with me, there were people in the living world too; Sarah, Meta Knight, Alex, mom and dad… people who needed me, who were waiting for me. And so I knew… that even if it would take too much time until we met again, they would always be walking next to me.

"_Farewell, dear brother._" Yoshi said.

"Farewell, Yoshi, my brother." I said crying "Let's meet in the after life!"

And so they disappeared, and although it was sad I was really happy deep down, because I knew I wasn't alone anymore, I felt closer to my friends and family than ever.

There are more tales to be told about my life until the day I died, about how I grew to take the ninth dan in Judo, about how Alex grew up to be like a son to me as well as to Meta Knight, about how I rebuilt bonds with mom and dad, and about how, with the pass of the years, Sarah and I eventually fell in love and got married, and how we took our own history wherever we wanted. All those tales are saved for me, they will be always saved in my memory, and all those tales will be told in a different story, which will be always be written by the next generations, and I will close this story about war tales, about an eternal conflict, with this feeling of victory, after all I mastered despaired and overcame loneliness.

Thanks for reading my story; and goodbye.


End file.
